The thing I remember the most about being a beginner was that I crashed more often but now my crashes are more spectacular.

Oh man I remember, My first plane was a cox cessna 150 with a craft 2ch radio and 049 no throttle control. My instructor would start it take off and fly it untill it ran out of fuel, it was very fast!! then I would fly it and land. The year was 1978.....

I remember the beginning very well. I have always been an airplane nut. I flew control line since I was 12. That was in 1971. Right after I got married in 1978 my uncle invited me to watch RC planes fly at the trinity river levy in dallas. The first rc plane I saw fly was an Ugly Stik covered in transparent red. It was the most stunning thing I had seen in a long time. I had to have an RC plane.

I was poor. Pure and simple. All I could afford was one of the Cox Cessna Centurians with a 2 channel radio. I didn't really learn to fly but I did learn how to repair foam. Then I bought a broken Qtee for $5. I repaired it and sorta learned to fly untill I hand launched it one day and forgot to turn on the receiver. It just climbed higher and higher until it was a speck in the sky. It glided off when the motor quit and I never did find it.

I bought a Little Stik from the recommendations of the guys at the levy. I bought a 4 channel Kraft radio from Johnny Cashburn. His shop was about 2 miles from my house. I had an instructor that mainly just flew my plane for me. I would go out on my own and fly during the week. I crashed everytime I went flying. But not too bad. I was really good at repairing. I finally learned to fly and land and broke a prop on just about every landing. I built a second Little Stik and by then I could land without damage. I could even land in the same zip code I was standing in by now.

I don't remember what happened to that little stik, I guess I sold it. Then built a Sweet Stik and with that plane I really learned to fly. I converted it to a tail dragger and sawed the wings in half and added dihedral. I never broke props and the plane was much more fun to fly with the dihedral in the wing. You didn't have to constantly correct it to keep the wings level.

I still have a love for simple Stik planes. I have taught several others to fly. And as mentioned earlier I hammered new guys about using the rudder. Its there for a purpose and not just to steer the plane on the runway.

I remember that! I had one that was used and it was made of all foam construction. ( I mowed quite a few lawns to buy it) I flew it a few times but I kept hitting trees and once a side of a barn with it. I forgot about it until you mentioned it. It flew great, the only problem with it was me.

Also I had a few plastic Cox U-Control Flying Models. I had 2 P-40's and one trainer U-Control Hustler. It had a red nose spinner and it was all yellow plastic with a few decals on it. My dad when he was alive would start the little .049 for me and I flew it until I got dizzy at my elementary school parking lot.

I didn't include them in my time in the hobby, because I wasn't a serious modeler like I am today, plus I was flying full size aircraft with my instructor at the time and I had my own business of washing and waxing airplanes at Duanesburg Airport, NY during the early to mid 1980's. So technically I have over 20 years if I were to add them all up not including being a member of the AMA.

Pete

I've been flying a few years now, I'd say intermediate ability. I can remember learning (self taught) and of course I remember crashing (a lot). It was a Hobbyzone Cub 2 channel. The daft thing is I can't remember why I couldn't fly. After all the Cub is slow and stable. I do know I wish I'd found a club sooner!

I remember it well. Flew control line as a teen and into my early 20s. It was hard work in those days with no ARFs. Marriage, kids and career got in the way of going to RC, something I always dreamed about. For my 50th, my wife bought me a full RC Trainer, radio and all the bits. It was a World Models high wing Skyraider. I joined a local flying club and thanks to the help and patience of several club members learned to fly with the Skyraider. Powered by a OS Max .46 AX.

While i expected learning to fly to be harder than control line, it was a lot harder than I thought it would be. It's nearly 4 years since those early days for me and most weekends I get out for half a dozen flights or so as well as a few morning flights with smaller foamies / park flyers at a sporting ground near where I live.

Any time we have new comers to the club's field, I go out of my way to say hello to them and make them feel welcome. The RC community is a great group of people to be around.

My first radio was / is a spektrum DX7 and when I got it I figured 20 saved models was well and truly enough. I was wrong. I'm now out of any spare slots in my receiver for new planes. Mostly I fly 40 sized low wing planes but have a few 60 sized as well as gliders and helis.

Life is good

Chris, I remember both those days. You took to RC flyhing like a fish takes to water. We had a good time the day you solo'ed, no doubt about it.

I started out way back in 1977 in Eureka, CA. I was assigned to a Coast Guard Cutter at the time and had a miserable patrol schedule. I really wanted to fly RC so I bought what would be trainer at the time, very different from what we have now. Anyway, I made several flights with it, handing the transmitter back and forth to the instructor. One day, I made an adjustment to the elevators but forgot to put the little rubber keeper on the clevis. The elevator came disconnected during flight. The instructor tried to bring it in but it stalled on landing and hit the pavement.

Again, the patrol schedule was brutal, so I never was able to take the time to either fix it nor to fly again.

I stepped forward over 20 years to more recent times. I was driving along one of the back roads of NJ and saw an RC plane flying over a field so I stopped and watched for a while. This rekindled my flying spirit so I talked to one of the guys at the field and ended up buying a Tower Trainer 40 with an OS 46. I also bought an Airrtonics RD4000 radio and all the gizmo's that I needed to fly with.

We flew off and on for a couple of months, but my work travel to England was almost to a commute level. I even bought a plane in England to fly and practiced over there with one of their club instructors.

When things calmed down a bit for travel, I bought a Nexstar Select RTF and ended up solo'ing with that. It was one tough plane because of all the terrible landings I put it through, but I never crashed it. I did some landing gear damage and broke quite a few props, but that was the extent of it.

Since then, well, I've moved up in the world of RC, trying Pattern for a while, but it was to disciplined for me because I just didn't have the time to spend on Pattern to get really good at it so I just stuck with sport flying, but I can say that my Pattern flying and those maneuvers helped sharpen my skills.

CGr.

Oh, wow. Sig Klipper. Recommended .09-.19. Well, there was no way I was going to put a "huge" .19 on her, so I opted for an Enya .09 Did alot of taxiing and had to throw it in the air to get it off the ground. I then got an OS .20. Now, that was the ticket! World Expert 5 channel. I did alot of flying with that plane.

I guess I have been a beginner several times. My first experiences were as a quite young boy building Comet and Guillows stick and tissue models. eventually I was even able to get them to fly. My first engine, when I was ten or so was an OK Cub .049 on a Flybaby (My first ARF) That was soon followed by a Fox .29 and a Ringmaster. The following years involved CL stunt, Combat, Rat Racing, a bit of free flight etc. all interspersed with high school sports, motorcycles, horses and other activities.

I had less time for modeling as I went off to colege, then there was a war, marrage and kids.

I got back into models first with a Kaydet a K&B .40, but I then built a Butterfly and pretty much taught my self to fly with it. Then I becamme a beginner again with rubber powered free flight....

jess

For me the beginning was comet & berkeley stck kits. I tried 1/2A controline but never could get it in the air. Then one day i saw some kids flying controline and the airplanes were much bigger. My Uncle had given me an old Mc Coy .29 Sportsman (rings & all). I bought the infamous Ringmaster built it and I was ready. My pal and I went down to the School yard. We were ready to give it a try. I know the engine worked becuse I had tested it but I really didn't think it would start. Three flips and it was running. I ran to the control handle picked it up and signaled my pal to release. Well, being on grass, and a novice, I did not know the lines would snag on the grass. The snag caused the rRingmaster to turn around on the ground and it did a complete 360 degree circle. My pal was trying to run away, fell down only to see the Ringmaster straighten out and head into the air. I can still hear his word "It's up". I had no idea what i ws doing. It held steady for about ten laps and then over my head and into the ground. Yes, it broke but was fixable. I was hooked! Next time the flights actually lasted until the engine stopped. Of course that was a new experience for me. How do I land this thing? Around, it climbed into the wind, over my head and into the ground. But it was fixable and I kept trying until I finnally got it. I was only around 15 years old and been building and flying since except for College, cars, wife, kids, work. But I returned into R/C ten years ago.
I think all that building helped, becasue I can fix the broken airplanes, and ARFs where many today don't know how and just buy another fuselage or wing..

Gerry

I learned to fly on a used 3 channel futaba radio and a used balsa USA swizzle stick. It didn't have ailerons, just, just rudder and elevator and throttle to rev up the old K&B 40 engine. The fuse was painted school bus yellow and the wing and feathers were red. It was ugly but it flew, and really flew pretty well. That was 1984 and have been hooked since.

Boy do I remember First plane was a Sig Kommander, with the "new" Testers McCoy 40. The radio was a MRC 775. Five, yes count 'em, five channels. Man I was in hog heaven I guess I just dated myself. That plane lasted about 10 seconds before the "indecent" happened. Rebuilt and it flew again with the help of my new found club members.

OK, that was back in 1975

Ken

Cox p-51b, flew by myself in a cultisac in Arizona.Started it and walked the strings
backwards until reaching the control while circling.Eventually glued the stabs
slightly up and cut the rudder to be straight. FREE FLIGHT HOOKED!
had to fly from there on out</p>

This thread isn't just for experienced pilots. If you recently got into RC planes, maybe you bought plane and are trying to learn yourself, or soloed
even just had your first attempts on the buddy box. Let us know how it went, share your experiences. If you are new and just checking the
thread out, look where these guys are from, maybe you live near them and they can help you out.

Mid 70's, M.E.N Trainer. Undercamber wing, 3 channel, Enya .19. Built it and flew it with club help. I can still hear my knees knocking. No sims or buddy boxes back then.

It was 1967, I was 15 and bought a second-hand trainer (an Esquire possibly) with a Controlaire 10-channel reed set from the LHS. I remember reading the directions about tuning the reeds everyday before flying, seemed reasonable back then!
The owner offered to help me learn to fly it, so I met him at the club field one summer Sunday. He helped me get it fueled and started, and I hand-launched it while he handled the sticks, ... er, switches. It flew so well, it got caught in a thermal and wouldn't come down for several minutes. He was finally able to coax it away from the thermal and down to a gentle landing. I will never forget that flight, watching my bird circling in the blue sky overhead, nor the quiet, patient man who helped me discover flight. Pete remained my friend until he passed a couple years ago.

I am going to be a beginner all over again. Started 22 years ago when I bought a Midwest Aerostar 40 while in the first year of medschool. Figured it would take me a year to build, but had it done in a month. Moved the OS FP 40 to a Supersportster and in just over a year graduated to a Goldberg Super Chipmunk. Still have all three planes and after 6 years of not flying, have cleaned up the Chipmunk and am going to give it a go again this week. <div>After 20 years and over 120 flights, I still love this old bird. Wish me luck!</div><div>
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MY MY
This is the remnants of my larst control line back in the mid 60,s FIRST RC LATE 60,S Then gave it away untill 4 years ago now Iam like a kid in a lolly shop I keep telling my wife the next one is my larst,

Crashed and destroyed my trainer on the first lap. Almost took out the club leadership.

Turned from the club and instructor .......taught myself helis.

Never looked back.

Got a lot of plane crap sitting unused.

Being a beginner today is different.

YOUCANDOITONYOUROWN NOW.

YUUUP  I can remeber being a noob, still am.  Did RC cars for many years back when the RC10 was the first real car out there.   LEarned my directions but was foreced to quit due to hand issues (Carpel Tunnel)
Just got back into R.C. last spring and managed to learn to fly pretty well at my club (DCRC).  We have a wonderfull field and a ton of very helpfull people. This is a video of what i would say is my best moment so far (altough i have flown a bunch this summer) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSaxv4Js_iA
Several things I have learned
DONT BUY CRAP EQUIPMENT
Dont trust anyone that helps, you are responsible to make sure everything is correct.
And the most important lesson.  MAKE SURE YOUR AILERONS ARE PROGRAMMED CORRECTLY  [:@]

Best noob moment was when i was the first one on the field in the early spring and had Pollen swirls coming off the runway on takeoff.
P.S.  Love the hobby and all the people that make it possible.

I learned to fly R/C over the summer of 1971 soloing in August on a Debolt Jenny with a logictrol 5 radio system. I was 16 years old. Club members were very helpful and never refused help when asked for.

Nice clean and fun thread. Thanks guys. Larry

My friend Mark Riley and his dad Clyde lived down the street got me into the hobby. They were big into control line and I flew these with them in 1970. I had a lil Wizard by Goldberg. The engine came out of a Cox Corsair that I got for my 5th birthday and destroyed it before it flew.

In 1976  Mark and his Dad showed up with an Ugly Stick with a Webra 60 and EK Logitrol radio. I had never seen anything so cool in my whole life. One day Clyde gave me an MEN Trainer. This was the best trainer ever. Had undercambered wings and flew SLOOOOW. It took forever to build but it looked and flew great. Transparent yellow and transparent blue monokote. Rudder and Elevator for control. Had an H&amp;B 25 up front that ran fairly well. 4 Channel Kraft radio bought from Johnny Cashburn in Ft Worth Texas. The radio cost $200 (an absolute fortune in 1976 for an 11 year old.) I had saved every penny mowing yards and my Mom and Dad asked me 100 times if that was really what I wanted to spend my money on. Not one hesitation after all those questions.

I would take off and fly and Clyde would land the plane for me. This went on for a while until one day I was up and ran out of fuel. I was calling for someone to land it for me but everyone was flying. Full of fear, I landed without a hitch and my unplanned solo was the beginning of years of flying up to the present.

 I recently bought another MEN Trainer off Feebay and it's just about finished. I am building it with my 7 yr old son. Can't wait to get it up. I hope my boy loves this as much as I do.

I Think around 1978. Ace Wizard, with a Cox .049 Golden Bee. Three channel Futaba. Self taught. Hand launched till it finally went straight in a slight climb. Just gave "blips" of rudder to make large circles. Eventually went to a cox .09 with throttle control. Been flying on n off since then. Ahhhh the memories!