I am a brand new to flying. I have never flew before. I would like you all to help me out in getting some info about which 4ch eclectic flyer to get. I have a feeling that at the beginning I will be doing some crashing so the plane has to be durable.


THanks
Monte

You can fly electric but if your planning on stayiing in this hobby why not go with a glow powered ?,reason i'm asking is by the time you buy everything,you could probably get into a smaller glow plane,some are made out of plastic and should be pretty durable.
Welcome

*Are you really an Okie ?.*

ya to being a OKIE

I read somewhere that all the glow are made of wood. I also read that glow are harder to fly and you need to join a club to fly in the fields. I am thinking of electric because of price and easy to fix and fly.

The cost of the electric or glow isn't so bad,it's the other stuff mostly the transmitter but you'll be limited to about 10 minutes of flying with electric before recharging or you can get another battery pack and have it charged but then it's $$ .You don't HAVE to join a club but that's up to you,good luck.

* bty,i was born an OKIE myself*

On the other hand,you could probably sell the electric when you wanted to go glow or keep it and get a smaller glow,then you have both worlds.

To answer your question. I would look for a high wing plane with a flat bottom airfoil. The wing should also have several degrees of dihedrahl. Dihedrahl is the amount each wing tip is above the center of the wing. When viewed from the front or rear, it will look like a very shallow "V". The more dihedrahl (within reason of course), the more stable and forgiving (self righting) the plane will be. More dihedrahl will reduce the aerobatic ability of the plane. Since you are just starting out, the aerobatic abilities of the plane should not concern you.

I tend to agree with 5_spot about going with glow to begin with. The advantages to glow are the size (much easier to see AND see what the plane is doing). Because a glow trainer is a lot heavier than an electric trainer, it will handle wind better. Many electric trainers, especially in a park flyer size, have difficulty with wind 5 mph and higher. The down side to glow is they require a larger area to fly in, they are faster than electric, the noise level, and cleaning the plane afterwards (no biggie, 5 minutes with some Windex and paper towels).

Glow planes are USUALLY made of balsa and lite plywood. They are not any harder to fly than electrics, and when (not if) you crash, IMHO, are easier to repair than plastic or foam planes with minimal weight gain. Because they have more power than electric (again, especially in trainers) they are able to handle the increased weight of repairs much better.

You would most likely need to join a club and the AMA in order to fly at a club field. The club will provide instructors AT NO CHARGE. IMHO, the AMA is well worth it because of the insurance it provides in case the plane injures someone or damages property (crashes into a car, etc). The AMA also provide a monthly magazine that is pretty decent in the membership fee.

I am not saying you can not learn to fly on your own. Many people have done it. What I will tell you is this: Teaching yourself to fly has a steep learning curve and can be (and usually is) quite frustrating (not to mention expensive). The USUAL first flight of someone teaching themself to fly is UNDER 30 SECONDS and frequently results in major damage to the plane and/or equipment on the plane.

As I said earlier, clubs provide instructors AT NO CHARGE. Many clubs also teach flying on electrics. I would suggest going out to a club field and talking to some of the people out there. If nothing else, the people you talk to can most likely provide some suggestions on specific brands/models and approximate prices of what you are looking for.

One other thing you want to check on, and not every club offers this. SOME AMA clubs have a program where the club provides the plane, equipment, instructor, etc. for 30 days AT NO COST TO YOU. The program was set up to allow people to try RC flying before spending any money. YOU DO NEED TO CHECK WITH THE CLUB TO SEE IF THEY OFFER THIS PROGRAM.

Hope this has been of some help to you.

A main difference between glow and electric is price and performance. You can get the same (or better) performance with electrics it simply costs more then glow at this time.

One thing you have to be carefull with is posts comparing park/slow flyers to standard (.40-60) size glow powered planes. The comparision is incorrect and misleading. Its like comparing the performance of a Ford Escort to a sports car.

Park flyers can be easier to fly because they are designed to fly slowly this gives the newbie more time to react.
They also seem to handle crashes with less damage due to their light weight and slow flying speeds.

Nothing beats one on one instruction but if you can't A park flyer like the slow stick or tigermoth may be the way to go.

I fly the Ford Escort (Slow Stick). It flys as advertised. It's fun for what it is when the wind isn't blowing. For the most part, since I've started flying 2 - 3 months ago, that means flying in the early morning or in the evening as the sun is starting to set.

If you fly a small electric, the costs may be less, but I don't thing it is much less. All I know is I spent around $400 CAD getting my Slow Stick in the air (kit, ESC, small servos, mini RX, batteries, charger....).

Start with the type of power you want to be using and get some help if there is a chance it will break into tiny pieces when it hits the ground.

If you're going to try and learn on your own and want electrics, check out Hobbyzone's Aerobird. It doesn't have 4 channels--only 3 (up/down, left/right, and throttle). But it is inexpensive ($150), durable, and can be kept to fly even if you later take up glo planes. It will fly for 15 minutes on one charge and an extra battery costs some $25-30 and will pratically charge while you're flying the fresh battery. Everything comes with the plane (including batteries for the transmitter) and it can all be kept in the original box. I have the Aerobird Challenger. Hobbyzone now has the Aerobird Extreme model. It is larger, heavier, and has a more powerful motor. However, it doesn't do anything (flying capability wise) that the Challenger model can do. And the box it comes in is much larger! I guess the primary advantage is that being heavier and having a more powerful motor, it will handle higher winds. Once you learn to fly the Aerobird, you can fly it in winds up to and over 10 mph, however most of your flying effort will be just keeping control of the plane in the air. The Aerobird had a "push" motor, removeable landing gear and plastic fuse--funny looking at first, but once you see how it takes the punishment you're going to give it, you will like the way it looks :-)