I have spent lots of time with many new people getting into RC planes. Some were full scale pilots and some knew nothing at all about flying RC.

Well so far They all been up in air and are now addicted to the Hobby and now their wives know what it means I call on a weekend. "Time to fly!"

When I learned flying RC planes I did not have a sim but wish i could have. It would have saved lots of time and just be fun to mess around with. At time My instructor had Futaba something and I had a Futaba Attack 4. Bad thing was it did not have the trainer cord option so it was a handful for me to learn.

There was many times that I figured that I would never get the hang of it. Also felt like it was a mistake getting into planes and was about to sell it. Well that goes for helis to when I was learning that also. I think the frustration takes over the hands.

They way I learned and have showed others was by doing the radio swapping. I take it off get in air and hand radio to them. If in trouble I get it back and recover. It is mostly because none of us have compatible radios.

Well there is more to it than just handing over radio. First off We power up the radio and plane. Do the regular checks on a new plane. Looking over it first real good. Next with plane on move the say elevator up and down and explain what it does. Also what it does if you hold it there of let go. I do this throughout all the control surfaces and stress that once stick is let go the plane stays that way. It becomes important later on.

Then before we even get in air I explain to them that I will hand controller over to them. And no matter what it does or look like it will do to not move stick until I say " pull up, down a little, bank left , bank right" I make sure they understand to do just that and only one move at a time and not try to pull the stick in corner elevator aileron.

Then we crank plane up I get it in air set the trims and make sure all is a thumbs up. Then make slow circles and talk the whole time what I am doing and let them see the sticks and what it does to plane. Sometimes they ask "what if you pull back to far?" or what if it rolls upside down?" I simply show them what it does and how the plane reacts.

I make my wide circles in air and explain that after each turn you need to level off wings. And that is it important to or it will start to dip off to one side and loose altitude. Then I show how it does when I hold in a turn to long.

I found the easiest way to make first time turns for them is to say " okay bank left a little" make them know not to yank stick but mover very little. As they bank left and it is in good spot I say "let go of stick or let it return back to center." Then " pull back a little" to pull plane around the turn. Then after turn is made now level the plane out so it continues to go in that direction. So I would say if they turning left after turn I would say " now level wings, give some right until wings level and back off stick " Then let it fly that direction for a little until time to turn again. Then repeat the same process by calling out each stick movement. "bank left, elevator to continue turn, then level off wings back to right." over and over until they see how it reacts in air what what stick does.

After a few flights like that they start to get an idea what what does what to plane and I no longer have to call it out as much. If plane gets into a extreme turn or dive I let them correct it unless its really low and about to smack something.

I found that a lot of times they bank to hard and end up completely sideways or upside down. I tell them " let go of sticks roll right until level again then pullback" reason I say let go of sticks is because if they continue to hold sticks in that position they are in it gets hairy and they over react.

I found that if you stress to only move sticks when you say and not they seem to catch on better. Also have a trust on what you say and not correct on own by fighting it.

I am not sure what works for you guys but I found that this works really well. It has got many people to enjoy their planes instead of be afraid of it or dread getting it air. I know some people that been flying for a while still dread flying that one plane.

This may be an old school way of doing it but it has been working so far. Or maybe I have been lucky so far.