woodie

Or,

Please forgive me if this post sounds frivolous, but I have to ask. What flying experience do you currently have? Very experienced with several years of flying aerobatic planes? Medium experience with a few years of flying trainers and sport aerobatic planes? Or some experience and are just interested in trying pattern? You have only posted here on RC Universe a couple times and just recently joined, so there is no way to tell what experience level you are currently at.

The reason for my questions and concern is if you are a fairly new flyer or have a medium amount of experience with sport type planes, investing in absolute top of the line equipment just to try pattern might be an expensive experiment. If that is your situation, I would recommend trying pattern with a less expensive setup to start which will provide you plenty of flying capability to learn pattern basics and then graduate to a more competitive 2M setup.

Most of a pattern pilot's success is based on the pilot, not the plane or radio. Most people moving from sport planes to pattern do not benefit from better equipment as much as they benefit from good coaching and practice. Flying pattern is a very disciplined activity and requires the pilot to make the aircraft stay in a prescribed/restricted area (the Box) and follow a set of explicit maneuver guidelines. Most sport flyers have learned to fly in a much bigger area and don't really worry about following a specific flight pattern except for take off and landing. When they try to transition to pattern, the restricted flying area is a big challenge. Learning to fly maneuvers based on specific guidelines instead of just following the plane around the sky is also a pretty big challenge.

So, if you are a sport flyer wanting to try pattern, I recommend you find a good aerobatic plane (not 3D type) and get a coach to help you learn. Much like a newcomer to golf, a golf pro or golf lessons can go a long way toward developing good habits to start rather than trying to correct them later.

If this is not the case and you are an experienced flyer, then forgive me for my recommendation and concerns. In either event, welcome to the world of flying pattern. We have a great group of guys world wide, hopefully there are some pattern flyers near enough to you to help in your transition.

Woodie