Sorry but I just have to vent. At this point I am learning to fly. But I have had one hell of a time hooking up with an instructor. Two weekends in a row I ended up going to the field, setting up all my stuff, and waiting for the instructor to show up. Sitting there watching everyone else carve up the sky just adds to the pain. Finaly the instructor shows up and tells me that he can't teach today and that the only other instructor is out of town. So I packed my stuff and went to a different club's field. The instructors at this club do not come out till the afternoon. AAAAARGH! :boxing:

I am a morning person and this is Texas. I like to fly early in the morning before it gets hot. At this rate I will never solo.
Once I have done that, I can fly anytime I want.

Anyway, thanks for listening to me b*tch.

Tom

Wow, you need to find another club. I cant believe nobody would help you out. To me that is disgusting. Even more disgusting is when a so called instructor shows up he wont help you..???? UNREAL!

Part of being an instructor is realizing that there will be days when you bring your planes to the field you may not fly them because you are helping people out. This has happened to me many times and it doesnt bother me at all.


Sorry to hear about your trouble. Keep at it!

hi DeadMeat this is normal dude .. one thing u have to understand is u have to circum to their convenience so u have to make that adjustment. down here in singapore the temp is 30-34 deg C and humidity at 100%!!! and the best part my pop wont drive me to the club so early in the morning! so the only time i can reach there is about 11-12 on sundays and 4pm n saturdays!..


i know how u feel pal but till u learn to fly solo u gotta adjust. hell today is sunday and my pop does not wanna drive me there!!!

Do you have a computer that you can use to fly the r/c simulator? I know its not the same, but it will help with hand eye coordination. And it doesn't cost near as much when you lose the plane. (learned this the hard way) Good luck Loren. P.S. I know what you mean about the heat. At 9:00 last nite, it was 95 Degrees here in Vegas.

Been there, Done that. I'm not a morning person. But, when I learned to fly my instructor was. So, I had to be at the field at the crack of dawn. I wanted to learn to fly bad enough to get up EARLY and go. You may have to do the same. Only in reverse. Like you said, once you solo you can fly any time. Good luck! It been fairly nice here in north FL. Until today it's HOT and muggy.

Cliff

Hey Raghfrost, If you can get yourself up to KL there are plenty of people here willing to help. Only bummer is that it is a 4 hour drive (3 hours if you leave real early before the cops wake up to set the speed traps). BTW, we start flying at around 7am here and pack up by 11am. Then wait for the sun to cool before the evening session starts up.

Sorry Deadmeat, it's a 23 hour flight here from Texas. But if you can make it, we will have an instructor waiting for you.

thats so kind of u ON_Final thanks for the offer

Tom, I like wgeffon, don't really understand this. At our club we have Saturday morning's setup for our club students to learn and one dedicated instructor that shows up every Saturday morning to teach, sometimes he is over whelmed with students but this does not stop him from teaching. The club I am in has quite a few instructors and Saturday's are set aside for learning, Sundays are for the advanced fliers however even on Sunday's we have one instructor that is more then willing to teach, he is also our field safety officer. When I was in the learning stage I was able to fly on Saturday mornings and on Sunday afternoons and then I would schedule a meeting with even another one of our instructors on weekday evenings.

Tom you did state that you only wanted to learn in the mornings. If I were you I would broaden the times for learning it will only decrease your distance to soloing quicker.

If your club has monthly meetings as our does you might bring this issue up at the next meeting.

Randy

Yes. I went to another clubs field on Sunday afternoon and got my trainer in the air.

I realize that I cannot learn on my schedule. So, I decided to brave the heat and go out in the afternoon. It was so hot that the cap on one of my plastic fuel jugs popped off in the back of my car. :surprised

And I was early. I arrived at about 4:30 PM. I was just about to pack up and go home disappointed, when the club president showed up at around 6:00 PM. He also happens to be an instructor. So we put my plane in the air. I think that club got themselves a new member.

Tom

Good for you Tom! Keep it up, and in no time, you'll be telling war stories just like the rest of us.

Maybe my club is a lot less formal....but when new flyers come out, plenty of people help them.....not necessarily "instructors". Just about any experienced flyer at the field will hook up on the box with a newbie. Thursdays are actual "beginners" nights, but new flyers are welcomed to the field anytime and can always find somebody to help them.

Mike

No-one else there at the club would help you fly? Sorry but, what a bunch of a-holes! All your stuff is set-up, you're waiting there, they all walk by you with their planes, they fly, they land, they walk by you again, and NO-ONE ASKS IF YOU NEED HELP? Screw them! If your next-door-neighbor is struggling to start his lawn mower (or whatever), and you are friendly with them, who wouldn't go over and see if he needed help. Or maybe he's locked out of his car. If you haven't paid dues to this club, I'd go elsewhere. I don't fly at a club, but friendliness would be a must! I could go on and on. This sorta thing pisses me off! I have no place for attitudes or a-holes in my life. Time is too precious! Go to another club, where new members are appreciated or at least welcomed!

Hey Tom,

Glad that you found yourself a club you like. Flying them birds is only part of what this hobby is about. The other big part is the people.

I had left a club for that very reason. My time is just as important to me and there is guilt asking someone to stop their fun to work with me.

The club I joined (and now am president of) has a structured training program. As my time was important I was specifically looking for more organization. From what I was told, originally instructors were almost avoiding the field because many students felt it was their 'right" to be instructed at their own convenience. (Hey instructors sometimes just like to fly their own planes too)

What was decided (before my time) was that Wed eve from 6:00pm to dusk and Saturday morning 9:00am - 1:00pm were to be designated for students only. That means our instructors knew when to be at the field for training and students knew they would get to fly at those times because we would have instructors there.

The only ones in the sky are students. When I heard about this, that was my reason for selecting the club. (many new members tell us the same thing)

Sure some students get to fly outside of student times, if a separate arrangement is done with the instructor at everyone's convenience but students are also told that they can't expect to be instructed outside those times.

Seems to work for all parties and we've been quite successful (also gives training time for instructors as well)

Nuker

I went down to a club just the other day, it is quite a new one, a couple of weeks old.
All the guys that were there were really nice and friendly. Almost everyone asked me if I needed some help and "So...why aren't you flying". I am just a beginner, but I think I have found a club.
Good flying
Ledz

The simulator will help cut down on how much time you really need with an instructor. I soloed on my fifth flight, and have been flying alone ever since. They really are a valid training media.

man.. i guess clubs operate differently everywhere..

i learned to fly at a club where there was no designated "instructor".. though there were a few "oldies" lol
anyway..

if there was someone there who knew how to fly and you showed up with your trainer ready to go.. guess what... hes already got the buddy cord waiting for you..
and if you dont have a compatible transmitter, thats when we would play "pass the box."

the guys that chose not to help or chose to be snooty wouldnt be there for long, we would tell them straight to their face; "theres only one way we fly out here... friendly.. if you dont like it or are unwilling to lend your time to other members then there are plenty of other clubs you can go to (i wont name names).. but dont come back."

hell there were plenty of times where i showed up with 3 or 4 planes.. but didnt fly the whole day because i spent all my time helping a newbie get his engine dialed in..

but i enjoyed every minute of it.

This won't help you, but maybe other newbies...

BEFORE you purchase any equipment or invest any time building or working on a plane, figure out how you are going to learn to fly. Learning to fly is a non-trivial task for most people, taking an average of 60 flights. From what you know about the club you're considering, how long will it take to work in those flights? My club has a very good flight training program, but a newbie is probably only going to get 1 or 2 flights every two weeks. Do the math, how long is it going to take to learn to fly if you show up early for *every* training session?

To rsieminski: Just because someone doesn't offer to help someone fly their plane does not make them a jerk. Flying somebody else's plane is a big responsibility, and many of us aren't qualified to do it. I'm not qualified to get someone into a locked car without damaging the car either! I've seen many "helpful" folks crash beginners planes, and not offer so much as an apology. Personally, I'd prefer to wait than have a so-called helpful person crash my plane because they aren't qualified to instruct.

gpmikemorse,
You are right. I guess I kinda just felt his frustration. They need a better program though!

I've been following this thread and have just realized that my posting could be taken wrong. I originally posted that I had used a sim and soloed on my fith flight, that was true. What I didn't say was that I'm 49, and have been building model aircraft from age 7. Controline, Free Flight and now RC. I built and flew Controline and Free Flight and flew in competition. Also I've studied aeronautics since that age and feel that I have a pretty good knowledge of the subject. I've seen all the methods people have used to learn RC. So I think my posting could be misleading, someone from that posting could think that one could learn to fly RC with a Sim and 5 buddy box flights. Much more is involved. If I could suggest anything, I would recommend that the newbie use as many training aids as he can come up with. My g/f asked for my help and I have made her watch 3 training vids, she has RealFlight, as well as book on Beginner RC flying. So all newbies in order to learn, have to study and research and find people who can help them in order to learn how to fly RC. Also start with the easiest planes, I soloed on a 3 channel Sig Kadet Senior that I built. Lovely plane, but there's probably even easier planes to fly, like park fliers. I've felt that this hobby had four important aspects about it. Researching, building, flying and the social element of meeting other modelers. All four seem to compliment each other and make for better flying. So research, build, fly and go out and meet other fliers, and you'll learn RC.

you all know that when the newbies try to fly some guy with a pattern job takes off and the new guy gets blown right out of the way. a lot of instructors will not even try to teach when this happens. the pattern jobs fly right on and over the runway and the new guy cant get near the strip for fear that his plane will get knocked out of the sky we have two fields here and both favor the patterns or helos we have some great instructors but they also back away from teaching when the patterns go up. this is just a thing that i have because I have try ed to teach new fliers and see a big problem when the other guys just don't CARE

At our field if an Instructor asks to fly alone with his student everyone cooperates and just waits for the 15 min it takes for the student to fly. Besides if I was flying a pattern plane I don't think I would want to be up with a student flyer.

We fly out of a small feild at home. We have taught a few but I have a problem with one guy who does not want to listen to advise. I will get his plane up and suggest some basic manuv. H E REFUSES to listen. Ihate to discourage him or make him mad but at this rate he will never learn to fly on his own. What would you guys do. thanx for the help

Man, I must have gotten lucky then. I used the FMS simulator to get used to the out-of-cockpit view and flying from the ground, then just went out with my friend and just flew around. Fortunately, we were the only ones there so I walked my plane to the runway a few times to get the hang of it and could walk wherever I want.

That's how I learnt, just like Nex. It's a cool feeling just to be able to fly without a problem.

Good flying, LEDZ



NOBODY is a VIRGIN............life screws us all !!!