RE: New flyer has airfield question
Welcome to a great hobby. Dad sounds like me only it took me 40 years to finally get into the hobby. I started with an Aerobird in March and now have 8 planes. Good luck with the Firebirds.
Here are some tips for anyone who flies the HobbyZone two channel planes.
As mentioned above, a critical piece of advice to you and to all two channel pilots. Respect the
wind! Don't even think of taking early flights in more than 3-5 MPH winds. Forget it!
REALLY RESPECT THE WIND!!!!!
These planes have throttle and rudder control only.
If you fly on a windy day you have a very high probability of losing the
plane. Why, because you have no way to fight the wind. If the plane gets
down wind from you, and it will, here is what happens. You hit the power to
fight the wind, but these planes climb when you hit the power, so instead of
coming back to you, they climb and as they climb, the wind pushes the plane
further away.
A very very experience two channel pilot can work around this through a maneuvers called the death spiral. However, this is a difficult thing to control for a new pilot. There is a fellow in our club who has lost two Firebird Commanders to the wind. I even lost an Aerobird because I did not know to push the nose down to dive into the wind at the time and the Aerobird is a three channel plane. It was my first flight. Today I don't have this problem.
Now, when the wind is mild to moderate, 2-5 mph, he is very very good with
this plane. However he is still pretty new, maybe 15 flights, and has not
learned how to handle this plane in the wind. You must assume that you can not handle the wind either.
A three channel plane with elevator control can push the nose down and dive
into the wind to come back. So, don't fly your rudder/elevator or diff thrust
plane in wind over 5 MPH until you are very good with the plane. Don't get
over 7 MPH until you can easily fight your way back from a down wind position.
The Outlaw is not recommeded for winds of over 8 mph by the manufacturer.
TIP
I don't know if this works for that Outlaw, but for the Firebird, II, XL,
Fighterbird and Commander, if you put a popsicle stick under the back of the
wing, it lowers the angle of attack of the wing and the plane will not climb
as much on power application. If you learn to manage the plane well, this can
give you better penetration into the wind, but it still will not let you put
the nose down into the wind. Don't do this on your early flights!
If you have questions, ask. There is a ton of info on the forum and people who can help you.
Good luck and welcome to the hobby.