Well the new plane and radio are working good the Hobbico Hobbistar 60 MkIII flies great. My mentor and I was flying yesterday and I was practicing approaches when he told me to cut the throttle and try a landing. After a few unsuccessful attempts (did not crash just did not get it down enough so throttled it back up and tried again) I had my first solo landing. Then I done a a took off that was not to slick followed by a very good landing. My mentor suggested to go right back down the strip and try another take off which was much better. Thanks for all your guys help.

Practice practice practice. Do it over and over and over again. That's the only way to learn this stuff. And, after you think you have it down, start over and practice.... you get the idea.

Every time I go out to fly, and I mean every time, the first tank of fuel is spent doing practice landings, and practice dead sticks from all over the sky. Then, after I get through that, I will start to play around with maneuvers and aerobatics.

CGr.

The Real Flight simulator has been an awesome investment.

The sim is not a substitute for an experienced mentor, but any newmanuevers I learnare now done on the sim before I attempt them with a real model.</p>

I tell my students, after you solo, you have to do 1000 touch and goes. And practice with the rudder. You're at a time which is gonna be a LOT of fun here on out.
Edwin

Congratulations!! Have fun, but have a purpose to your takeoffs. Keep the plane aimed at the end of the runway. My pet peeve is seing someone just shower down on the throttle and when the plane reaches the weeds at the side of the runway, they yank on the elevator to try and make the plane fly. A good centerline takeoff makes you look like a pro. When that gets boring, try it at less than full throttle. Let the plane run and build speed on the ground, then ease it into the air. There are lots of ways to entertain yourself and learn just doing takeoffs.

Ditto on the partial power take offs, when you get some experience.
You will also have fun when you come in to land, and see how many clicks of throttle will keep the wheels from touching down. Rolling the tires on the tops of the grass blades is the objective. Once you get familiar with that, then you work on how long you can keep it on just one wheel. That will require some finesse on the sticks.
Very fun once you get to begin to be successful at doing it.

Congrats on the landings. Now is when the learning really starts. I still go out and shoot touch and gos every day I fly. If I am taking a student I usually arrive early and take the trainer out and shoot with it if I am alone or not training I shoot with what I have. As you progress into new types of planes you will see the differences in the approach. I recently started flying a pattern plane and there is a huge difference in that most sport planes glide in easy and forgiving. The pattern plane has a keep the nose down and keep power on it till it gets over the threshold then gently lower power and very gently flair. The flair is more to finish the slow and keep the nose up. Once power is pulled at slow speeds it almost stops in the air. But man once you get it; you get it. Another aspect is practice approaches and flying in conditions that push your comfort (just abit). Try to fly in wind and cross winds. It puts you in a whole new group when you see people packing it in and you fly in the wind. It is awesome to see peoples jaw drop when I fly a foam T-28 straight down the runway sideways. Also when it stops 10 feet over the runway 0 ground speed and just apears to hover. It just takes a bit of confidence and finding progressive days that step you into the more challenging flying. Again good on ya!

Great advice "Shoer down the runway toward the tall grass is exactly what I done on my first take"!

Dockman
Keep up the good work! Hard to do with the weather settling in as it is. Don't be shy to get on a buddy box in the spring for the first timeout (or if a nice day pops up) Your in for a lot of fun!

Where do you fly? I used to fly in Eldon, now in OZark MO south of Springfield.

Trust me a buddy box does not offend me at all. As a matter of fact I wish I had the funds to buy one for my radio. You are right about the weather but I will spend lots of time on the Real Flight 5.5 this winter.

You don't need "to buy one" just a cord that connects your radio to some one else, an instructor, that has a similar radio.. Spektrum to Spektrum, Futaba to Futaba, and so on. And, you never know.. at some point in the future, you may use it to help someone else.

CGr.

My shop sits on 10 acres of flat ground. My dad built a grass runway back in the 90's before he passed away and we have keep the runway open to who ever wants to use it. Here are a few pictures not the best shots but you get the ideal. It is about 100' x 500' and could be longer if needed.

So I can connect my Futaba to any other Futaba even FM to 2.4?

Can my Real Flight radio be used? It has what looks like the same plug on it as my real radio and they are both Futaba. Plus it came with a cord! As you can tell I know very little about radios nor does my mentor his radios are old style that work great and no need to replace them.

Someone with Futaba experience can answer both of those questions. I suggested that based on what I have.. Airtronics and Spektrum. I can do Airtronics to Airtronics, and Spektrum to Spektrum. I would imagine it's t he same for Futaba, but they have different types of jacks on the back of the radios that may require either adapters or a cable with the matching types of plugs on them. I'm sure someone will reply to your questions in short order.

I don't know about the RF interlink controller, though.

CGr.

Hangar9 makes a universal adapter cable that will connect Spectrum/JR as master to futaba or hitech as student. I use it all the time. 72mhz - remove the crystal, you have to turn on the buddy box for power, will connect to 2.4ghz on the master transmitter. I dont know of one that will do Futaba as master and JR as student.
Edwin

Ithink being that close to a gas station I would change all my engines to gas.

Congrats!

wow, just how I would like to end up when I retire, ten acres of flat ground with a runway! Remember to practice keeping the plane in front of you. I watched a guy at the feild today use up every bit of airspace for 500 acres! It looked like he was flying control line, turning in circles.