<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: ">So I've just received my first RC plane as a birthday gift. It's a Cessna 172 by Airfield. Claims are that it is an RFT model, except for the fact that I seem to be missing the charger...I've got the battery, balance charger and alligator clips. Is there anything I'm missing or is this all I need?I've attached a photo as well so you can see exactly what I have.

The instructions worked well for the construction of the plane, but is totally lacking in the way of battery charging.

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<span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: ">http://www.nitroplanes.com/93a182-sk...4g-v3-red.html<o></o></span><o></o></p>

Thats gonna be hard to learn to fly...<div>Good luck!</div>

It looks to me as though you have the charger - what you don't have is a power supply (e.g., 12V battery) to connect the charger to. Those alligator clips at the top of your photo must plug into the blue balancing charger box, right? And then your flight battery (the black one in your photo) plugs into the other side of that box. But to charge it, you need to connect the alligator clips to a power source. I've been using an 12V 8 Amp-Hour sealed lead-acid battery from an old computer uninterruptible power supply, and it works just fine. I bought it for maybe $15 or so at American Science and Surplus, and got a pretty inexpensive charger for it from Tower Hobbies. I use it for several things besides recharging my flight batteries.

The balancing charger you have must have some indication of the acceptable input voltage. I imagine that what you need is a 12V battery as well. Tower Hobbies sells one for $20:

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...XL370&amp;P=ML

and a compatible charger for $11:

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...LXL353&amp;P=M

That's the same charger I have, in fact.


If you already have a 12V power supply capable of recharging your battery, then you just need to attach to it through the alligator clips. Otherwise it looks like you've got about $31 of battery/charger to buy. The good news is that battery/charger will be a nice portable source for all of your charging needs - you'll be able to field recharge the flight batteries for any of your planes with it.

Or if you have a portable tire inflator... Also known as a portable power system you could use that...

and are you sure that charger is for lipo? also, it says overnight charger....you would much rather want to have a charger that can charge much faster.

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...ischarger.html<div>This is a charger that will last you... Its really good!</div><div>Get it and a nice dc power supply like the 12v battery.</div>

The charger provided with the plane is a balance charger with auto-cut-off.

It will not overcharge the battery if you leave the pack plugged in via the small white plug. It is what you should use.

You are not missing anything either. It is an RTF in that everything you NEED is provided. You can clip the leads to your car battery to recharge the plane.

As already stated a 12v DC power source of suitable amperage is a better idea. I typically find several suitable transformer/supplies in my box of unknown wall warts...
Check yours ( everyone has em! ). You already may have a suitable charger.

Make sure it reads at least 1000mA ( 1 am ) 12 to 14v DC with a positive center tip. Almost all wall warts have the necessary markings to decode this.



As indicated, that is NOT a good absolute beginner's plane and will likely last a few seconds if you attempt to fly it without help.

NONE of the control surfaces are set up correctly ( yes this is what RTF means! ) nor is the plane trimmed out for flight.

As a result novices are faces with not only learning how to fly, but with trimming and setup issues that they know nothing about.

The "Trainer" monikker is due to it being designed for people who are still new to RC. For someone who has already learned how to fly and land it may be a good "Trainer" airplane as they proceed to hone their skill.

For an absolute novice tackling their first flight... no.



I often see people arrive with Park Flyers and Foamies, and blame the plane when they crash it.

If it survives ( assuming I was not quick enough to stop them ) I fix things up for them, and they are amazed to see it actually flying after all of their troubles.

Unfortunately even when I try to give them an intro lesson, and tell them that they need further lessons, the planes end up in the trash after subsequent attempts.

It's a lipo charger, and it's a "90 minute peak detection charger", according to the product website. He's fine with the charger itself - he just needs some kind of power source for it.

I'm too much of a newbie myself to have an opinion on the plane's suitability for a first time flyer, but I do think that OPwould be well served listening to the advice he's getting here from the experienced hands. Is the radio system suitable for use with a true trainer?Maybe someone can help him out with that?

The included TX/RX combo is really only for that plane ( he MAY be able to purchase another RX, but there is no model memory in that TX, nor anything beyond channel reverse )...

I'd advise that he put that plane away, and learn on another, preferably with the help of an instructor. ( No Buddy Box with that one... )

After he's soloed and had an instructor check out & fly the Cessna "trainer" for him, should he even attempt to fly it, and then only in the presence of the instructor. The instructor can get him out of difficulty and save the plane as he acclimates to it.

That's not to say it is a "bad" plane... actually it flies pretty well and looks quite good in the air ( I've flown it for people who've arrived with it in tow... ).
It uses standard sized components and batteries too, which is a plus.

But "Beginner" here as advertized is not a "complete novice" as is the OP.

You can see in the video that the plane scoots around fairly fast, and it doesn't come in as slowly as a real trainer.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt">Thanks for the help!

Iam taking theadvice of the experienced hands and have already found someone in my area willing to give me a few intro lessons.

Does anyone here fly in real life?I've got a commercial pilot license and flight instructor rating with 300 hours. Am I wrong to think this will speed up the learning curve?</span></p>

You already have the basic understanding of flight controls down thanks to your real world experience....

That said real world pilots frequently exhibit the "whoah, what happened to the controls" response when they fly an RC plane for the first time.
Most call it a "humbling experience".

You'll definitely learn fast though.

I imagine that depends on who the comparison group is. I saw a post here recently in which a new R/C pilot asked for an explanation of airplane controls, apparently unaware of what rudders, elevators, and ailerons do. I think it's fairly obvious that you'll have a faster learning curve than someone beginning at that point.

I'm a low time real life pilot (110 hours in single engine, 3.5 hours in sailplanes) who is just beginning to learn to fly R/C sailplanes, and yup, "what happened to the controls?" is exactly the feeling I had. But on the plus side, after about 6 hours of flying R/C sailplanes, Ihaven't had any "fatal" crashes yet.

Having a good handle on aerodynamics is a huge benefit and will lessen your learning curve. The biggest hurdle most full scale pilots need to overcome is learning the sight picture. It is continually changing due to the constantly changing point of view. All of your feedback is visual so to feel it is close to stall means that as you move the controls you see the airplane reacts more slowly and you may need more movement on the sticks to get it to pitch or roll. Where in the plane the pressures tend to be lighter close to slow speed stalls and you will see more sky and less ground, the pressure never changes on the radio and the sight picture can be hard to interpret. You will also need to learn the muscle memory and that can vary from person to person. Use your experience as an instructor and plan your flights. Start with the basics, turns, climbs, descents and then move on to stall recovery, approaches and landings. You will find that all the same procedures work just as well and will allow you to progress quickly. I had been flying models for years before I became a pilot and instructor, but my experiences with full scale enhanced my abilities, with models, greatly.

I have a few different planes and Heli's that use Lipos, so I picked up a Thunder Tiger AC6, the newest one that is AC and DC. So if you do continue flying, this would make a good charger for you. The only battery I cant charge are the single cell ones, but I have a couple of those for my Ultra Micros.<div>
</div><div>Speaking of UM, the T-28 makes an awesome first plane for 4 channel control, and VERY forgiving on hard landings. I have crashed it several times with nothing more than a few pieces of packing tape for repairs and it still flies great. </div>

Just remember that your NOT in the pilots seat. When the plane is coming TOWARD you, LOW WING GETS THE STICK.

I'm not trying to be harsh here, but rather I am answering your question in all honesty so that you understand.

Normally this actually increases the learning curve for students. There are a couple of factors that contribute to this. The first, and foremost, of these is because you aren't sitting in your plane anymore. You have to realize that all of those hours you have in a full scale plane has given you a specific set of reference points for flying that plane, and those are that you are reacting to what you see from inside of the plane and what you feel while being inside of the plane. Now with an RC plane you are outside of the plane trying to react and control the plane from an entirely new set of reference points which you are not accustomed to. The problem is that you training is going to try to kick and and this can cause problems for the RC plane. Think of it this way. When you are sitting in the airplane and you move the stick to the right, the plane moves to the right. Pretty basic. Now stand on the ground and fly the plane away from you. You move the stick to the right and the plane still moves to the right. Still pretty basic. Now, turn that plane around and fly it towards you. You move the stick to the right and the plane is going to turn to it's right. HOWEVER, since the plane is coming towards you the plane is going to move to YOUR left. This is called stick reversal and all RC pilots have to overcome this, but it's harder for full scale pilots because they are having to work against all the training they have ever received.

Trust me that I'm not trying to be ugly here, but the second problem usually comes from what you have already said. Many full scale pilots feel since they can "fly the big ones" it's simple for them to fly a small toy. It's purely an attitude, but it's a killer one. I can't count how many times I've seen this reach up and bite a full scale pilot in the butt. Just treat the RC plane like any new airframe, or full scale skill, that you have ever learned and you'll be fine. Just remember that you'll simply need to learn that the RC plane is going to fly differently than full scale planes.

You do actually have on huge advantage over other students though. Since you are a full scale pilot you already understand the fundementals of flight and how an airplane works. This does help because you already know why, and how, certain things happen when a plane is flying.

Hope this helps

Ken
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