Hello,

My name is Brian and glad I've found a forum that looks like there's some good folks on here willing to help out with my newbie questions.

I've never tired to fly an RC plane before. I just purchased the Hellcat it's like a WWll fighter but it's ready to go right out of the box and made of pretty durable looking foam from the video I saw of it.

I've never flownbefore and wanted to know if anyone has this RC Hellcat and complications I may run into trying to fly it. Once I get the hang of how to operate RC planes really good I will then want to start building them from kits and eventually make my own pretty much from scratch except the engine and would like to eventually learn more about the electonics.

I actually bought another plane a week ago that was 90% complete and had to put together the other 10% and there were no instructions from the manual on how the electronics were to go together and I ended up frying my transmitter's receiver and the electronics for the engine Iblew because I started to smell something burning so I knew I had blown the chips for the motor. I will go back and fix it and buy replacement parts after I get good enough at flying the one I'm getting without breaking it from an accident from being a newbie.

I hope to be able to help people out on this site once I get a littel time under my belt with this RC world I saw as a kid and have always wanting to do it but finally got around to it and hope it's as much fun as it seems.

I need a lot of luck and experience and help especially if you have flown the Hellcat.

Thanks in advance!!!!!!!

Ready, fire, aim!

Good luck.

Brian,
Do yourself a favor and hook up with a club. The members will help you make smart choices as to what to buy to learn on. Quite frankly the Hellcat is a poor choice if you've never flown before. It's life expectancy will likely be less than 10 seconds in the hands of a beginner. The learning curve of a newby with the right plane and the help of an instructor can be rather short.

To elaborate on my fellow Texan's words of wisdom, you've gotten ahead of yourself just a bit. But first, welcome to the hobby and to RCU!
To answer your questions: The complications you'll run into, aside from the normal beginner difficulties, are that the Hellcat will be hard to keep oriented because of its color and shape, will not self-correct, and will be difficult to land without stalling and crashing. There are planes made to help beginners get over the hump of learning to pilot called trainers. Skipping the trainer step is one of the costliest mistakes a new RC pilot can make, and the cause of many a promising new hobbyist to quit before even learning the basics.

Reading between the lines of your post, you want advice on how to get started in the hobby successfully, right? If that's the case, put aside the Hellcat and buy a trainer. If you absolutely must be self-taught, then the HobbyZone Super Cub is a pretty good first plane. If you can get an instructor, your options open up a lot. Download the FMS simulator and get a cable off Ebay to attach your transmitter. Alternately, you can buy a control box for FMS off Ebay that comes with a free FMS CD. Learn to takeoff and fly constant altitude circuits and do no bounce landings consistently on the Super Cub (harder than it sounds), then give the Hellcat a try.

Thank you guys for all your help!!! I think I will try a flight simulator first. I pick up on things pretty fast. I also purchased about a week ago a Sky Surfer Glider and there were no instructions on hooking up the brushless motor and the transmitter and I blew the transmitter that goes into the plane and the electronics that come about 3 inches out of the engine. So I am going to a hobby shop tomorrow and hope they have the parts I need. That was my first step and I called the place I bought it from and they told me how to hook it up correctly and it all made so much sense I could have just kicked myself!!!!

Does anyone know where I can get a really cheap flight simulator for my computer that uses a 6 channel 2.4 gig transmitter.

I would like to thank you all again for taking the time out to help me!!!!

The answer to you simulator question is in my reply above.

I recently got the clearview rc simulator software and it is way better than FMS. But given that FMS is free and you can get it to work on your computer you can't beat that. Best thing about Clearview though was I could use my wired xbox controller to run it easily.

Just my 2 cents

I didn't see the Cleaview sim when I purchased the Pheonix sim. I really like te Pheonix, it has winds and aemms like 50 models of planes at lest, sound, nice crash noises, LOL!!!! This is my third day with the sim and I'm taking off and landing them. Plus they have training for landing where it sets it up in the perfect position to land your plane in and other training stuff.

I would have went through 1,000's $$$$$ if I didn't purchase this simulator!!!!

Thanks for all you guys help!!!!!

Banana Hobby...
You may not have problems with them or the product but it is possible that you ordered from the company with the worst online reputation.
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9565410
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=10013566
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9999287
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=9106252
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=8895419

A few online dealers with good reputations are
www.advantagehobby.com
www.hobby-lobby.com
www.hobbypeople.net
www.horizonhobby.com
www.towerhobbies.com

Brian, You have some good advice above from some great guy's. Stay tuned to the forum and you will learn lots in many areas of RC Flying. I see you are in Ohio. I suggest getting aquainted with Dave Thacker, owner of Radical http://www.radicalrc.com/shop/ He's given me lots of direction, is invloved with flying clubs in Ohio, andcan get you hooked up with RC Clubs close to you.He stocks tons of components so when you bust your planes up as you are almost guaranteed to, he can help you put them back into flying condition if it's possible. Whetheryou livie in Ohio or not, he's a must to be aquainted with.

I too started with a plane from Banana and won't go back. There are many other good suppliers out there. You have been given the names of a few of the best already.

Enjoy your new hobby and stay tuned here for much more great advice and knowledge shared.

AltaTed

As a long time instructor and Head instructor for our club, I can tell you that having a good instructor is worth more than 20 foam airplanes! but if you must the three biggest issues a new flyer encounters is over-controlling the aircraft, reversal of controls when flying at you and stalling when trying to land.
First hurtle is solved by disconnecting one of the connections to the motor to disable it, placing the plane on the ground in front of you and imagining the plane in the air as you work the controls and watch the movement of the flying surfaces. First make sure the surfaces move in the proper direction. when you push the right stick to the right the right aileron should move up and the left down. Then left and the left aileron moves up and the left down. When you pull back on the right stick the elevator should move up (this is providing you are dealing with a mode one transmitter). then the left stick moved to the right should move the rudder to the right. Now practice moving the controls smoothly and in small increments. Again imagine how the plane will move in the air.
Next is reversal, to deal with this the best beginner practice is to repeat to yourself the direction you are moving the stick at all times. You will be concentrating on the right stick for the most part at first and only lateral control is important to remember=, so you should repeat right, right, right, left left, etc. This practice will set in to the mind your maneuvers and help to keep the confusion to a minimum.
Third item is stalling on landing. Stalling can happen at anytime and any speed, but is most prevalent and disastrous during landing. Let me say first that in our training program after the student becomes proficient in basic flight at altitude (flying and holding a pattern in both directions and climbing and descending turns) we teach approaches and then landings. I feel it is important to teach landing early on as it develops the fine control stick controls needed in all advanced aspects of flight and if you teach take-offs first you may have a student try on his own if he can not hook up with you. Now to reduce the risk of stalling fly the pattern so you end up turning into the wind as you approach the runway. Keep a good altitude but cut back power and start a decent. You want to end up a good 25-35 feet in altitude as you fly straight down the runway. Concentrate on keeping the nose slightly down during your approach then as you pass the threshold of the runway you want to level off and apply a bit of power (just enough to stay in level flight). Work on keeping the flight past you level and at a constant speed. If the controls feel soft and mushy add a little more power, fly for at least 1/2 the runway and then power up evenly keep flying straight for a few seconds to gain speed and then turn and climb to go around. Keep practicing this until you can hold a straight, level constant speed at the same altitude for that 1/2 of the runway. Once you are comfortable with this lower your altitude by 5-10 feet and do it a few more times then drop a few more feet. Before you know you will be landing.

These lessons are suggested to be done with an instructor and preferably on a buddy box, but at least try them on the simulator first.

As far as planes are concerned it seems to be a standard that new flyers will gravitate to scale, high performance planes for a first purchase. I agree with jester_s1 on the super cub, but a plane like the e-flight Apprentice or Alpha 450 will have better ground handling, though they are balsa and lite-ply so will not be as rugged. The Hobbyzone champ can be a great trainer for indoor or calm day park use as it is stable and easy to fly, but it is only 3 channel (throttle, elevator, and rudder) so learning stick control with it and then going to a full 4 channel model can be confusing. On the other hand it teaches rudder from the start (something many seasoned pilots have never learned). You can also bind it to a DX6i DX7 or JR DSM compatible radio and mix the rudder and aileron channels at 100% so both stick movements can be used. This is where an experienced modeler comes in handy!

If anyone has any questions just PM me, I will help!
Doug R

Banana hobby is terrible and I ordered one 2 planee from them and you can't understand them well when you have questions you wait forever to talk to someone and soem of them I couldn't even understand. All teh stuf I've bought lately have been from hobbyZone I think is the name and the guy is great and will sit and talk with you and tel you what's what and really wants you to get it.

Thank you guys for all your outstanding tips and right after I posted the thing about me not getting sound I guesss what..............the sound was back. What a world.