ORIGINAL: apwachholz
Having been involved in radio control airplanes for a relatively short period of time (as compared to most), one of the most common oversights I've seen when learning (or for that matter teaching someone) how to fly is understanding physics of flight. Now I'm not talking super details such as load, wing chords, thrust lines, etc. What I'm talking about are the basics of flight, like how an aircraft even stays in the air (lift) or what it takes to avoid, or for that matter recover from, a stall.
When I ventured into rc I did what most do and learned by trial and error. However, after having gone through my paces I began to investigate and found two major gaps in the learning process presented to anyone new: 1) lack of explaining why you should know these physics, and 2) lack of this information (geared towards rc'ers) existing in general.
Am I missing something here? Shouldn't understanding how a plane flies and how you should fly it (aside from the control sticks) be the most important bit of information presented to a beginner (or for that matter an experienced pilot) from the start? To me it's similar to learning how to drive a car...if you just jump right in and press the gas - odds are not in your favor you or your car will survive your first experience.
Just curious to see what others have to say...[/font]
Hmmm...who taught you? I have to agree that there should be a BASIC understanding as to how planes fly...or why they behave the way they do. Maybe your instructor (1) Thought that you already know the basics of flight or (2)didn't care. Then again, you said that you learned through trial and error...implying that you are learning by yourself which is not a good idea in the first place. Just my $.02