Some of us had to learn on our own not by choice but by circumstance. Here's how it went for me, some 40 years ago.

A kid of just 13 years old, I was befriended by another just turned teen and his dad at the local magazine store while mulling over whether or not I could afford the latest issue of American Aircraft Modeler. That was my first exposure to a small group of guys, old and young, flying free-flight and controline. This was at an old, mine tailings pond, something like a salt flats. It was big enough for free-flight and soon enough, some of us tried our hand at RC. Remember, this was the late 60's. Back then you had analog proportional, single channel, reeds, Galloping Ghost and rubber powered escapements.

Three of us started out with single channel, Jack, my mentor with a push button, single channel Tx and escapements in a Carl Goldberg, Mini-Skylane. I had a Sterling, Command Master, pulse proportional set. Jack had a lot of success with his as the Skylane was basically, a high wing free-flight, inherently stable and the radio was used mostly to interrupt it's natural flight path. I on the other hand, had a Carl Goldberg Skylark, the big one for a .29 to .40 engine and it was a LOW winger. Yes, a low winger on pulse proportional rudder and just an escapement for three position, throttle control. While Jack flew a lot that summer, (with two fly-aways when the rudder jammed) I spent the summer doing 5 to ten second flights that ended up as crashes with several hours repairs each time. I kept adding down thrust and right thrust until the crashing stopped and one day I flew for a full three minutes before the engine quit and I actually landed. Keep in mind that the runway was all around us and you didn't have to keep track of left or right. We did something instinctively that helped a great deal.

But by the middle of the summer it became clear that I wasn't going to learn to fly on a single channel. So I got myself a Citizenship, digital proportional radio and the plans for the RCM Trainer. Not one of the many variants of later years but the original, that was three channel with very simple and LIGHT construction. Jack did the same and decided to build Ken Willard's Headmaster from plans. This time though, I used that new fangled Monokote and Jack stuck to his tried and true, silk and dope/talc finish. Jack was a perfectionist and made his as glossy as mine but he paid a penalty in wing loading. As well, I used mostly what was considered punk soft junk wood. At the time, it was the norm to use Sig contest wood for free-flight and single channel but for serious RC, we were told to use serious wood grades,,, as in heavy. Both our planes were the same size, I used my Enya .29 (from the Skylark) and Jack used an OS .15. Mine was lighter than Jacks and I had a more powerful engine as well.

I learned to fly that RCM Trainer and now it was Jack's turn to spend his time crashing. The difference? WING LOADING. With Jack's plane, he had to run full throttle just to stay in the air. That meant high speed flight and despite learning a lot on his single channel, his new speed demon was just too hot to handle. Myself, on the other hand, needed only half throttle to stay in the air and that helped a lot as I could throttle back, trim in some up elevator and SLOW the plane down to where I could keep ahead of it. The lower wing loading was the key element there.

The other, very crucial item that was included in the article that came with the RCM Trainer was the tip for sorting out the left/right confusion when the plane is coming toward you. That was to always point the antenna of the Tx in the direction that the plane was going. This meant that you look over your shoulder if necessary, but always have that Tx oriented with the direction of the plane. That eliminated, entirely, any consternation about left and right as the plane moved around the sky.

The other tip was on how to learn to land. This one I came up with on my own. That had to do with throttle management. To learn to steer the plane around the sky, set the throttle and the elevator trim to where the plane is just climbing ever so slightly. From there, any GENTLE turns you make will spill off the climb and you will maintain altitude. If you get a bit low, just stop the turning and let her climb to safety. As we had plenty of space all around, we didn't worry about crossing the flight line and this helped a lot. With making turns under my belt, I practiced low passes over the imaginary runway. Each pass got lower and lower till at one point, all I had to do was chop throttle and the plane settled in with no white knuckle hysteria.

Jack did learn to fly the following year but this time he designed and built his own trainer as if it were a free-flight but with a radio on board. He went back to his precious Sig, triple A, contest wood and used clear dope on silk and not a single piece of sheetwood in sight. This plane was smaller and used the .15 but carried a 250 mAh pack and that helped a lot with the wing loading.

So it CAN be done, learning on your own, but you DO need a high wing trainer type that is stable like a free-flight. You need a LOW wing loading. You need a dead nuts reliable throttle. And you need to keep looking over your shoulder during the times the plane is coming toward you.