Here is a link to the AMA club locator. Use this to find a club in your area.

http://modelaircraft.org/templates/ama/clubsearch.aspx


Which radio should I buy. All new flyers ask this question.

How many channels do I need? You will get many opinions.

And, you will get a debate on whether your first radio should be a standard
radio or a computer radio. What's the difference?

First it is important to realize that you should be able to fly any plane on 4
channels. That is enough to control rudder, elevator, ailerons and throttle.
With that you can fly an indoor plane, an electric park flyer or a giant high
powered plane.

However, with more channels you gain flexibility. For example, you can put
two servos on the ailerons and control them individually. You can operate
moveable landing gear. And, when it comes to gliders/sailplanes you are
likely to do more surface mixing than on power planes, so if you into
sailplanes and plan to fly full house sailplanes, you typically want more than
4 channels so you can do that fancy surface mixing. The club wizards
recommended at least 7 channels for full house sailplanes.

Here is a typical channel breakdown. These apply to electrics, glo and
gliders.

Rudder - 1
Elevator - 1
Ailerons - 1 or 2
Spoilers/Flaps - 1 or 2
Motor/tow hook/landing gear - 1

That makes 5 or 7.

Could you use 9? Sure, if you have the money?
How about 12? Sure, if you have the money?

I am not pushing a given number of channels, just trying to help establish
what they are used for. In my opinion, most sport flyers will be well served
with a 5 channel computer radio like the Hitec 5X and be able to do what they need to do for
years. Bump it up to 7 channels and you have about all you need to fly almost
any sport plane without feeling you are short channels. If your plane has
bomb doors, fires rockets, ejects pilots, and stuff like that, 12 might not be
enough.

For the rest of us, why would 7 be enough. You typically don't have spoilers
and flaps on the same plane. A motor and a tow hook would not likely reside on the same plane either unless it is a tow plane.

While landing gear is very rare on sailplanes it is common on power planes, but then you really
don't need two flap servos unless you are getting into advanced stuff.

So 5-7 channels will still usually do it unless you are into really complex planes or really advanced competition.