RCU Forums - beginner

RCU Forums (https://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/)

- ARF or RTF (https://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/arf-rtf-75/)

- - beginner (https://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/arf-rtf-75/10165006-beginner.html)

anyone know a good, inexpensive RTFairplane for beginners? i was thinking the hobbyzone Champ but anything that may be better? Thanks!

The Hobbyzone Super Cub http://www.horizonhobby.com/Products...ProdID=HBZ7300 is recommended a lot. It does cost more.

I watched the videos on the Horizon site for the Champ. It looks like it could be a good starter plane, and the price is right. It is small and very light so it needs to fly when there is very little wind. Like the "disorientation and recovery" video says, it is so light that it might not be damaged badly if it hits something. If you'll be learning to fly without an instructor, that would be a good thing.

go with the supercub alot better ship to learn but please get some help at first if you have never flown we are allway ready to help

I agree, the SuperCub!

x4 - taught many people to fly on this airframe!

filepie10,

If you have never flown before you need to start with a trainer plane and an instructor. The Cub is not a good starter plane as they are short coupled and pretty squirrly on the ground when trying to take off epecially for a beginner. You didn't say if your looking for and electric or nitro plane. This is the plane that is suggested for newcomers at our field. It is a complete setup ready to go and has proven it's self time and time again.

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...I=LXEXK2**&P=0

Thanks for all the information i will think about the super cub or champ and yes this is my first time so i will need to figure out which one has more durability. im looking for an electric one but both are electric so thats good. thanks.

The hobbyzone super cub is the most durable and fun to fly of the two.

Jerry Jones
http://rccontrolled.net

Iam a beginner and Ijust bought my first RCplane, which happens to be the Hobbyzone Super Cub. Ihave no idea what Iam doing, so Ibasically took it to an open park field by my house and have attempted 3 flights with it. It responds well and Ican attest to the durability of it. Ihave crashed it three times, and two times it did not even have a scratch. None of the crashes were the planes fault, as it was very forgiving and Iwas able to get out of some tight situations by just letting the plane straighten itself out. The third crash was hard into the ground, but it only snapped the tail. Imade a newbie mistake, which was flying the planein a windy situation.The Super Cub is a largeaircraft, but itis very light and not good inwinds above 5mph.Sounds critical, but in actuality I just used some toothpicks and hot glue to get the plane back to great shape. Iwas already told beforehand that Iwould be crashing and fixingmy firstplane a lot, but that is how you learn. Also, the parts for the plane are really cheap, so if you ever break a prop or anything else, it is super easy to get replacements parts online or just about any Horizon based hobby store.

Hobbyzone recently decided to install the 2.4ghz system in the existing Super Cub Trainer. It's a great airplane that up until recently was only available in 26.995mhz. Bad choice for frequency selection on the manufacturer since this is right in the range of the CB radio (our field is right next to the county truck yard which has many trucks with CB radios installed). Long story short I got hit and lost control, but it wasn't a crash. Airplane came down and landed, but I couldn't turn off the throttle. As a result ended up with a burned out ESC. Called Hobbyzone and asked about conversion to a 2.4ghz system, and was told that I would have to purchase a new aircraft since they do not offer a conversion for the older 26.995. New price for the 2.4Ghz - about $199.00. Horse Feathers on that!

Conversion by yourself is very simple, here's how I did it.

Purchased the following from Graves Hobby in Orlando, FL (I was down there to see the last Shuttle launch)

(2) two Hitec HS-55 servos. Cost - $7.99 each.
(1) one BPA2217-9 Brushless Motor. Much better and more power than that cheap brushed geared unit the model comes with. Cost - $20.95
(1) one Thunderbird CSETB18 Brushless Speed Control (ESC). Cost - $33.99
(1) one Futaba 6 Channel 2.4GHz FASST Park Flyer Receiver. Small and light in size. Cost $59.99
(1) one ACP 9 x 6 Slow Flyer Prop. Cost $2.99

Total Cost $133.90

Might seem a little expensive with the receiver cost, but my others are for larger aircraft. The larger receiver units probably will work also so I could have saved the $59.99 which would have put the cost down to $73.91.

Procedure - Removed the original receiver, ESC, servos, and electric motor that came with the Cub from Hobbyzone. Installed the two (2) Hitec H55 Servos in the original location of the older servos by gluing them in place with Shoegoo Shoe cement from Walmart. Installed the ESC per Thunderbird's instructions (very simple with small amount of soldering). Used the original 3 cell 11.1 1300mah Lipo battery along with the plug from the old 26.995 receiver(soldered to the new ESC). The most time consuming task was removing the original motor mount and modifying it for the new brushless motor. For this I removed the prop shaft and brushed motor from the mount, then I cut the prop extension and holder for the original motor off using a band saw. This gave me a flat portion of the mount from which I attached a cutout piece of 1/16" ply to attach to brushless motor to. The original mount along with the brushless motor puts the prop in about the same location as with the original configuration. Lastly I needed to trim the prop hole in the cowling slightly with my Dremel tool with a sanding drum for adequate clearance.

Fly's like a dream with much more power, and now I've got 2.4Ghz..

I guess I am confused because nobody has bothered to ask what YOUR goal is.

Do you want to start on park flyers and stay within that genre? Are you interested in clubs? Getting instruction? Just learning on your own? What is your goal? Do you want to be in pattern one day? Aerobatics? Glow? Gas? Heli's? What is it YOU want? Do you ever want to do something beyond the basic three or four channel park flyer or get into giants one day? Maybe turbines? Jets or turbo-props?

What do you want my friend?

i bought a champ yesterday, my first plane ever. (i race 1/10 and 1/8 offroad buggies)

i charged it up and flew it with ease, no instructor. if you understand how a plane works it's really easy.
i had so much fun with it, got about 12-15 minutes per pack. i crashed a bit and it's tough.
my buddy did break the wing, nothing a little ca glue and some accelerator couldn't take care of. plus by buddy bought me a spare wing.

i was doing flips in a few minutes and by the end of the nighti had ground take off's and landing's down pretty well.

the champ is one heck of a good starter plane.