jester_s1

What helped me initially with landing was to get the plane about 6 inches off the ground with the throttle all the way down and just try to hold it there as long as I could with the elevator and working the ailerons and rudder to keep it straight and level. At first, it only takes a little, but as the plane slows it takes a lot more quickly. When you hit the stop at the end of your travel, the plane will just settle in with a short rollout. That's all assuming of course that your throws and CG are at least pretty close to being right. Once you get a feel for how the plane responds to you just as it is stalling, you can exert more control over your landings, setting it down a little hotter and smoother or shooting for one spot instead of just letting it happen wherever it does.

Villa

Hi daddyrabbit1234
I have been flying R/C for about 40 years, and did a lot of R/C training. At age 77 I no longer teach, but I do advice. I did not read every post here, yet I am surprised others have not suggeste you look for a local flying club to help you learn to fly. Most clubs do not charge anything to teach you to fly. It is a very rare person that can learn to fly on their own. Most will crash and crash and crash. Many get so discoraged they quit this WONDERFUL hobby. Even full scale pilots may need some help, particularly with landings. I have seen many new R/C pilots learn to fly without damaging their plane.

daddyrabbit1234

My Feedback: (14)

Hi Villa, I've been advised by almost everyone here to find and join a club then get some flight time in with a teacher and abuddy box. I've since found a great club that has a super facility about 20 minutes from me. I've since been invited to come and apply for club membershipbut I was informed that I'l first l have to be an AMA member before I can join the club. Can you enlighten me on the benefit's of being an AMA member and why most club's are AMA member's???

opjose

Most clubs REQUIRE AMA membership.

They do so because of liability issues. AMA sanctioned clubs enjoy a degree of insurance and protection given by the AMA itself.

AMA members also get liability insurance as part of the membership. This insurance DOES NOT replace your home/apartment owner's insurance in case you do something, you plane hits somone/something, etc... but it does provide additional coverage over what you should already have.

In addition you get the magazine, and the AMA is quite active at doing things to help support the hobby, such as the recent FAA bill lobbying in congress.

You can often visit and fly as a guest at other clubs with nothing more than your AMA card and proof of certification/membership at your home club.

Villa

Hi daddyrabbit1234
opjose wrote it best. I would not fly R/C without AMA.

jester_s1

Aside from the insurance which is a big deal, the fact is most clubs would have never gotten started without the AMA helping find flying sites and the funding and publicity help they give. And many clubs wouldn't continue to exist without the AMA, not to mention the work they did in the past getting us our own set of frequencies and continue to do in establishing safety regulations and keeping politicians out of it. AMA also does a lot to establish uniform standards for competition and events, which even if you don't participate yourself, the hobby as a whole benefits from. You'll find that most serious hobbies have a national organization of some kind that does those same kinds of things, and most serious hobbyists see the value in the dues they pay.

JohnBuckner

My Feedback: (1)

OK on the insurance thing I would like to address one point that is almost always ignored and possibly the only reason many an AMA chartered club can exist.

Now this does not apply to a club that owns its own property and they are precious few as the vast majority either lease or just have a use agreement with the property owner. The owner can be a government entity or a private owner, such as our case the property owner is the Kingman Airport Authority. Now no smart property owner is just going to assume all of our liability at least if he is smart he won,t.

The AMA charter includes a specific rider with your property owners named on the ryder. For that owner he is now fully covered and covered as primary named insured. This is not secondary insurance such as the rank and file member, correctly reported by Oppose.

Our little magic insurance ryder just came through this morning and I gotta truck it on over to the Airport Authority in the morning. Care to guess how long it would take them to throw us out on our ear if this did not come thru every year, I don,t. A very large number of fields accross the country are in this boat And most would not last six months without that name on the magic piece of paper.

One additional thought that also causes lots of confusion is the club positions of president, vice president, secratary, tresurer and I think the field safety officer now are all covered by primary insurance and not the secondary of the rank and file members. It difficult enough to find people to valenteer and give of their time for these positions an the primary insurance for them is important.


John

daddyrabbit1234

My Feedback: (14)

Now it all makes sense to me as far as being an AMA member. AMA has some huge benefits.

jester_s1

It does. In fact, it makes the hobby possible for the vast majority of us.

AMA 74894

My Feedback: (1)

+1 :-)

card carrying AMA member since 1964...
(additional Family /Kid memberships are FREE)

once you've gotten a couple airplanes under your belt you'll wonder what all the fuss was about
good luck!

JohnBuckner

My Feedback: (1)

Here is another thing that AMA does do that gets little acknowledgement sometimes.

This brother and sister in the photos about two years apart I have been mentoring about every step of the way started flying with us about eight and ten years of age I am not a relation. Both became excellent flyers and both (two years apart) earned an AMA college scholership award.

The young man attended Embry Riddle at Prescott and upon graduation was snapped up by an avionics firm as an engineer for civil and military applications. He even managed to workout a long since AM wideband and illegal Transmitter that is over forty years old to a complete 2.4 RF system so I can finally fly my old Orbit agine legally for nostalgia purposes.

His younger sister has just recently graduated Arizona State University.


The AMA scholership fund program has done tremedous good over the years.


Later this summer we will be hosting between fifty and sixty Boy Scouts with an introductory fly day I am part of four buddy cord teams that will fly them all and other teams the same day will be conducting basic ground school, including flight planning a simple full scale cross country and working a basic navigation problem. There of course will be simulators set up for them to also fly.


Now here is the interesting part, Our club will be absorbing all the cost of the operation and as Jim Buzzio mentioned above Ama membership for kids under 18 I beleve is free and furthermore they do not need adult relitives who are members, It makes no differance it is free. What they must have is a parent or guardian signature.

What we are doing is working with the Scouting association all the required hardcopy membership apps are being handled well beforehand so at the end of the event all of the kids will be full ama members when the day is over and their membership card as well as pack will soon arrive via mail to them.

The only differance between a kids membership is they will not get the magazine however they may elect to also get it at a cost of 15.00


John

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

As a quick add-on to what John said above. To qualify for the AMA scholarships they will need to be a member of the AMA for at least 3 years before they apply. I say that because some people sign their kids up at the last minute trying to get the scholarship, don't ask me how I know that!!!

JohnBuckner

My Feedback: (1)

Yup

flyinwalenda

My Feedback: (5)

So, how was the flight ?

daddyrabbit1234

My Feedback: (14)

Hi Brian, I have'nt got to fly it yet. I had to order new tires to replace the egg shaped tires that came on it and the tires I ordered were 2 inch and they sent me 2 1/4 inch tires. Needless to say the tires scrubbed the wheel pants so I ordered some 2 inch Dubro wheels from someone else and they fit perfect. The plane is setup and ready now. It was very windy here all weekend so I'm just waiting on a decent day to see what I can do. I got my AMA membership yesterday so I'm making progress at some rate. I went sunday after church and met Bruce Burgey to pick up the 9-47 I bought from him last week. With a 55" wing span that is one beautiful bird. I ordered some risque nose art and I got that put on today. The more I look at this plane the more I like it. i'm now ordering a 59"DHC-2 Beaver with floats to fly on the lakes here where I live. When I met Bruce to pick up theP-47 we met in a huge mall parking lot and every other person that came thru that parking lot had to stop and get out to see that plane and each one was just bursting with questions and they all loved the plane. I could'nt believehow manypeople that were stopping to look and ask questions. I told Bruce since he build's plane's and sale's them he should come to that parking lot on weekend's and set up a tent. I don't know how many plane's he would sale in a day but he sure would stay busy answering question's.
Thomas

daddyrabbit1234

My Feedback: (14)

Hi Guys, As most of you know from my post that this is my first plane that has been a disaster right from the box from the busted cowl to the egg shaped tires but I have good news. Redcat Racing finally came thru along with the seller and sent me a complete new landing gear from the fuse down plus a new cowl,new motor and new ESC. The seller told me to go to redcats site and file a warranty claim on the damaged parts which I did. I told them that I couldnt get the motor to work and this was my first plane but I later found out the rule about transmitter on first-transmitter off last and when I tried this the motor worked perfect. Instead of redcat contacting me to try to figure out what was wrong with  the motor  they just sent me a new motor and ESC so now I have extra's.
  I went to the local club saturday to get some help flying and not a soul was there and that place is packed every saturday???? My wife said it was probably because it was easter weekend. I'll try again this saturday. I'm eager to get going!!!

Rob2160

Just a correction.. it is spelled.. "Flare"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landing_flare

daddyrabbit1234

My Feedback: (14)

Rob, I will only warn you once not to troll my post's with petty response's such as your last one just to correct my spelling on one word from a post over a month ago.

Mr67Stang

3 months later... Has this plane flown yet? Have you bought about 6 more planes?

If so, your on track to complete addiction.

daddyrabbit1234

My Feedback: (14)

Yes I fly it now. I followed the advise I was given by seasoned pilots here on the forum. I joined AMA and a local club where I was put on a buddy box. I have since learned to fly after many trips to the field. I still have the Cessna and it fly's great. I have yet to fly the 63 inch thunderbolt I have. The thunderbolt has been gone through by the club instructors and set up properly to fly but I just can't gather enough courage to take it up yet. As far as more planes I've got 3 World Models ARF large scale planes on order. One is the Cessna with floats then the J-3 Cub with floats and lastly a stock J-3 cub. The Cub has a 71 inch wingspan so I guess you would call these large scale. They're far from a 1/4 scale but they look huge to me.

opjose

Wow congrats...

It seems like you are an addict too!