I've been mulling over posting some thoughts regarding getting started in this hobby from a beginners perspective, and decided since the thunderstorms rolled in a few hours ago, and I can't fly anymore today, now would be as good a time as any.

All things considered, I'm extraordinarily pleased with my choice to get into RC Airplanes. This has been a fantastic opportunity for me to relieve stress from a very high pressure job. But, I have to say the learning curve to get started in this hobby is very steep, at least from my perspective. I'll try my best without becoming to long winded to detail my experiences.

I think first and foremost is understanding the dizzying array of field gear necessary to properly operate my plane. I purchased a Nexstar. So I had to buy all the support equipment and learn how to use it. I didn't have the benefit of knowing of a local flying field or even anyone else who owned an rc airplane, so I had to learn everything on my own. First disappointment was the box the Nexstar came in clearly says ready to fly in 20 minutes It even says so on the website http://www.hobbiconexstar.com/. Then upon inspection of the manual...you are required to charge the receiver and transmitter battery overnight. How could this plane possibly be ready to fly in 20 minutes if this is the case? Next problem for me once I got the plane together was assembling my field box. I bought a Hobbico power panel, an electric starter etc. All of these gadgets had alligator clips on them but my power panel requires banana plugs. I called my LHS to ask how to convert them over and was told I had to solder the banana plugs on. Geesh...I thought couldn't they have just come from the factory with banana plugs?

The terminology is another daunting task. I knew the basics such as the terms for the control surfaces..but the hardware was a different story. Servos, clevises, control horns etc. etc. I was perplexed for awhile about what the heck a TX and RX was.

Fast forward a month or so, and I've flown my nexstar on my own a few times at a local park. After a few close calls with some trees, I decide to do some research to see if I can find some like minded RC'ers out there and that is where I discovered RCUniversere. Now the learning curve is leveled out, but with an added twist. I found out I should be doing quite a bit more in terms of how I should properly care for and operate my plane. I should balance the prop so I bought a prop balancer, I should be concerned about deflection on my control surfaces so I bought a deflection meter, I should really watch out for how I'm charging and monitoring battery's so I bought a voltmeter, your prop should be spinning at such and such RPM so I bought a tachometer...you get the idea. Now I have a mountain of new gear to constantly tweak and monitor the Nexstar and all I really wanted to do was fly my stinkin' plane!

Fast forward a month and I've joined the AMA (per the advice of many contributors to this forum) visited a few clubs and finally joined one. On top of all my startup costs and field/maintenance gear I now have paid dues to the AMA and our local club. The learning curve gets a little less steep as the members of the club begin helping me out. They start saying things like your engine is to rich on the bottom end and to lean on the top end, you need to do this and that to fix it . They might as well said your thermo coupler is discombobulated and for God's sake man the flux capacitor is out of alignment!! it would have meant about the same to me.

So to summarize my experiences....from a beginners perspective

1.) I had to figure out a lot of things on my own that probably seem simple to most vets of the hobby but can be pretty darn confusing to a rookie

2.) I thought that glow fuel and a plane were enough to get me flying...boy was I wrong. I probably spent about as much for support gear as I did on the plane itself. Then spent the next several weeks figuring out how to use all this gear

3.) Once I joined a club I found a lot of help, but at 32 years old, I'm half the age of most of the guys in the club.

4.) Don't try to talk your wife into letting you go to the field and fly on your anniversary

All in all I'm slowly coming up to speed, thanks to all of you and the good folks at my flying club. I've purchased my second plane, which happens to be a seaplane, and the guys at our club helped me fly it. It will probably stay in the garage for most of the season as I continue to learn on my Nexstar.

Sorry this is a bit long, but I thought someone might be able to learn from my experience.

Joe