I about choked when I read he was wanting to go whirly and griping about cost[sm=spinnyeyes.gif]! I suppose a gas turbine is in his near future too. Wish I was his local hobby shop, maybe not can't stand seeing people cry about self imposed pain.[:@]

heloman - I know it might be a hassle, but I would call the AMA back one more time. I had a copy of the approved application FAXed to me and used that until the card came. I am the VP in our club and deal with them quite a lot on new membership verification and they are only partially automated. I have talked to a couple of persons in the membership area and they have been very helpful in looking things up once the manual process is complete. You might get them to help in this way.

BTW: I spent about what you did, but I knew that going in. It was my choice and I expected it. So if you make the known choices of spending more, that boils down to personal preference. I will admit I had a frustrating stretch of about 2 months after I began my training. I had to send back my radio twice for adjustments (went back for the same thing the second time as well) I was frustrtated to no end, so I bought a second radio. Now I didn't have to, but it was a choice that I made to keep me flying.

Its not really "false economy" to start out with a 4 channel radio... compare the cost of the 4 ch system to the cost of a "flite pack" using the same servos... virtually the same price. By the time you need the 6 ch or higher radio... you probably will want to have 2 to 5 airplanes ready to fly at once, so you'd have been buying flite packs anyway. Also... the time between the original 4ch and the better radio allows the better radio price to drop, or they can come out with a better model. AND you'll have more of an idea what you want to look for in your better radio.

There's no down side to be found... except maybe a bit of delay in learning to deal with the features of the better radio (but they can just be something extra confuse you while learning to fly... so you are better off not having them at that time)

I am the same ... I do not keep or take receipts from my LHS. No point. As for set ups let's se how cheap it can get:

SC 46 engine: USD55.00
Phoenix Scanner: USD75.00
Extra Electronic 4 ch: USD120.00
Tuned pipe: USD50.00
Hand pump: USD10.00
No need for electric starter and other nice stuff ... still my best plane to have fun with

What the heck. Who sells a radio with no servos? Missed that. Take Tower radio back back and get the Futaba 4YF ($130). I need the lunch back to help cover the extra cost as well.

It's best to just accept it as an expensive hobby and not think about it too much. I just cut costs on other things. No longer do I buy name brand maccaroni and cheese. Now it's the white box with black lettering. You would be amazed at how many times aluminum foil can be re used.

You sound like my grandma...LOL

Here is the breakdown on my UCANDO 46 ARF. I did recover it so there is and extra few bucks. And I bought it a the LHS so I paid a little more. And I didn't include the price of the TX. Fill in you own there. And, the tru-turn spinner, I consider top of the line, can be replaced with a $5 jobby. So this wan't the cheapest route to go but compared to building full sized 4 wheel drive trucks, I can go to the hobby store for a replacement for a part and walk out spending 30 bucks instead of finding a rear axel for $200.

Ucando 3D 46 171.00
Engine - Saito .72 224.00
JR 1400 mah 6V battery 35.00
Servos (2) Futaba 3004's Aileron 63.96
Servos (2) Futaba 3001's Elevator 63.96
Servos (1) Hitec 605BB 25.00
Reciever - Futaba 50.00
Servo Reversing Wire 18.00
Tru-turn Aluminum Spinner 15.99
Tru-turn Aluminum Spinner Adapter 15.00
Great Planes Remote Fueling Valve 10.00
Remote Glow Plug 15.00
Canopy 5.00
Sullivan Tail Wheel 10.00
Monokote (3) rolls 47.97
Pull-Pull Rigging 10.00

779.88

Not bad for an ARF that only costs 150 bucks! It will add up but it all seems worth it.

Wow I sure did get everyone exited, as I said in my first reply to my initial post, I was venting a little, but really what I meant to convey was my anger with the ama for setting me back, I WANT TO FLY!!! Also to those surprised about me wanting to get into helis, I guess you could say I already am, If you notice my user name it's "heloman," this has been my standard username on everything for last 7 years, which is when I first became an Airforce(rescue) h-60 crewchief. Moreover, maby someone could tell me why (in my expirience) only rc people use the slang term "heli" of all the (hundred+) other (full scale) aircraft mechanics I know, I've only ever heard the slang term "helo." I know the worlds a big place and maby lots of non rc people use the term "heli" but I was just wondering if anyone has any thoughts about this? I'll also post this in the heli section.

Support rescue...get lost

Cjsworks, I am totaly with you on that one, brother!!!!!

By the way, I missed the "beware" point, beware of costs or beware of AMA?

Costs... This hobby is by far is NOT the most expensive one.
AMA Membership... just do it yourself (by the way, this is another little secret in this hobby - the more you do yourself, the cheaper it can be). You can fild an [link=https://www.modelaircraft.org/templates/ama/memberapp.aspx]online application here.[/link] This way you can make all the mistakes yourself too!!!!

You do have a "not so cheap computer" with an internet access, do you? [>:]

Good luck, and have fun flying!!!!

Well one good thing about buying lots of stuff is once you buy it you have it. So if you wreck or whatever you have all things you need pretty much. You don't have to start all over with buying all sorts of things. Well unless you are buying special parts for a certain plane.


That is a good question about word Heli compared to Heli.

If I had to guess I would say that when people type or send e-mails there are a lot of slang usage. It is just easier to type out in here in forums or in e-mails and it probably stuck. You see that a lot when reading from posts in here.

You have Heli (Helicopter),
WOT (Wide Open Throttle)
IMHO (In my honest opinion)

And the list could go on and on. I use word Heli also but when I refer to it when talking in person to someone it's Helicopter or Machine or Chopper.

Guys

I can't tell you how much I have spent so far on this cuz I can't remeber all the prices I paid. I am still waiting for the better half to give me around $100 so I can go to the LHS and get the fuel, fuel filter and other stuff I need for the plane to get it in the air. I know that right now it is around $200 including my AMA membership, which I got in about 1 week (much to my suprise).

After I get all that, I will still have to shell out $75 for the local club.

Larry

I know what you mean about the costs rising in this hobby. I dropped $72 yesterday for 4 stroke fuel and a tach. I bought a Saito 56 just the other day, so might as well get the tach too. Anyway, all of the startup items will last a long time and make flying go better in the end. I am hoping though that this will be the end of the start up gear for a while.

As to heli or chopper...I was a helicopter pilot in the Army until I retired. We never called them helis or helos. It was mostly rotary wing or helicopter or 'the aircraft'. Some people called them birds, as in, "let's get in the bird and go." You never said that you flew choppers....well, you could say it maybe once and hope to live it down on day. Mostly, we said that we flew rotary wing. In the cockpit you always called it "the aircraft."

I guess my thoughts is that I don't do a lot of entertainment, i really only have two other hobbies, computers (main hobby/job/life) and Motorcycles (ok, I am less into cycles than RC as it still sits in the garage not running yet).

I am married w/ kids so of course my unds are even less than most. My solution was to start my own "hobby" account at the credit union and i place a bit of funds into with each pay check (between $10 to $50, depending on which week it is and what bills need to be paid). Of course that doesn't mean I get to keep it, we have had times where a new bil will pop up so there goes the funds. I prefer not to think of how much did it cost me, but more as what is the investment into my entertainment...that or just not look at the receipt as i walk out the door with athe extra bag of goodies when all I really needed was fuel type thing.....

blwblw, I agree we would also call it "aircraft'' because that is the proper term, but I'm just talking about slang terms because thats what I'm comparing, overall it was mostly "tail number" or "aircraft" then "plane" as in "go do preflights on all the planes" then sometimes you'd here "helo" but never "heli." I guess this is pretty much a useless topic...to each his own.

blwblw

In the Coast Guard they are "Aircraft" and "Helos" because we had both.

Larry

I've heard helo used before around the Coast Guard guys. I was mostly just tossing out some useless trivia that doesn't mean much in the real world. I wasn't trying to preach to anyone and slang is okay with me. I gather that heloman was around full scale ones too. I sometimes make mistakes using helicopter terminology at the club. Fer instance, I keep calling adjustments on the digital trim "beeping", as in beeping it up a notch, etc. I got that from beeping the inc/dec engine switch that makes fine adjustments on turbine N2 settings. I sometimes say that I'm "ground taxing" out to takeoff. All planes "ground" taxi as opposed to a hovering taxi in a helicopter. I get looks from the guys. My instructor flew Phantoms in the Navy during Viet Nam and when I talk about turning downwind or base in the pattern he keeps calling it turn 2, turn 3, etc. I know what he means and never say anything.

By the way, all Coast Guard aircraft that I've seen look highly maintained and probably loved by their crew chiefs/mechanics. I was always impressed by that.

[:@] 15% here is $29.99 at our Hobbie Store? Same as 5% thru 30%. 45% is something like $40.00 / gal.

Well, I have found this to be true with just about any hobby that you will decide to undertake. There always seems to be a good size upfront cost to get into a new hobby. The RC hobbies are really no different. For example, I play airsoft which is kind of like Paintball but a lot cheaper. The upfront cost was puchasing a gun to play airsoft. It was a bitter pill to swallow but afer that it is really just maintenance and what ever modifications I wanted to do to it. I see Rc airplanes not much different. You will have to buy a lot of field equipment up front, but a lot of the stuff you can use with other planes, projects, ect. Not to say that you will not keep spending money out the yingyang, because there is always some cool item that will make things easier and better that we just have to have.

Oh by the way, Paintball was the only Hobby/sport that I played that this didn't seem to ring true with what I had just mentioned. I found that the more I played the faster I could shoot meaning the more paintballs I used, and those things are expensive.

Wow gas is high where y'all live! Ours is not that high so I consider myself lucky and don't mind paying.

But what really gets to me is the cost of bottled water. I never thought I would see the day to where you pay more for just 20oz. of water than you do for gasoline. Now ain't that something. [:@]