I ordered my Hobbico Nexstar and it should arrive on Thursday. I am excited. I have been wanting to do this since I was in high school but never took the plunge until now. I plan on spending a few weeks on the sim and then I plan on putting the plane into the air. Whether I get the thing back on the ground in one piece will have to be seen. Im not sure if I will ask for the help of an instructor. Im not proud but there are two reasons for not going with an instructor. First I did go to a local RC park to observe and did not get good vibes from those who were out there. Im not one to bother anyone especially when they are absorbed into their passion of flying. Second I get this sense of thrill knowing that I will be challenging myself to successfully launch and land the plane with only myself at the controls. Dont get me wrong, I would not attempt to do this myself if I did not have the sim to teach me some of the coordination thats required for flying RC. Im not sure completely what I am going to do yet. My question has to do with flying location. Do pilots try and find a place other than at a known RC park to fly their planes. I would feel more comfortable going to a location somewhere away from the crowd so that I can really focus and not have to worry about ramming my plane into someone or knowing that people are watching and placing bets on when they think that I will send my plane nose first into the ground. There are some open areas not far from my home that I think would qualify for a location to fly an RC airplane. I wondering if there is some sort of regulation that says you can only fly RC airplanes in designated areas.

Frazzled,

I sure would hate to see you loose the excitement you have for this hobby. Please get someone to test fly your plane before you fly it. I was teaching a guy how to fly and after a couple weeks he thought he could fly his plane by himself. Needless to say after he crashed it he never came back to the hobby.

Good luck

UH....

Please re-consider. You NEED to join the AMA, unless you already have 2.5 million dollars in liability insurance. Don't get me wrong, this is generally a safe hobby, but one plane through a school bus can ruin your whole day.

Find a local club that has people with whom you can get along. GET AN INSTRUCTOR....period. Otherwise, I fear, you may be discouraged and leave the hobby too quickly. Trust me, a simulator is only.....a SIMULATION. It does not provide you with any experience, just familiarity with controls and basic flight principals.

If you must try it without an instructor, order an extra plane now. That way you won't have to wait for delivery after you DO find an instructor. I admire your spirit, but it sounds like you think this will be easy to learn. It's not, for most people.

There are many things you need to know that only an experienced flyer will be able to tell you. JOIN A CLUB people will help you if you are interested and willing to listen. A word of caution.....if you act cocky, or refuse to listen; the members will likely wait knowingly until you need stitches from the prop or help bagging your stack 'o' sticks.

This is a great hobby, and a club will provide you with 'flying buddies' as well as a much needed resource of experience and information.

Good Luck!!

I am by no means cocky. Im all for playing the part of the rookie but I cant help myself when it comes to these kind of things. I will probably go with an instructor.

You don't NEED to join the AMA, but the benifits out way the cost to join, plus pretty much every club (that I know of atleast) require you to be a member of the AMA to fly at the feild. Also, geting an instructor will save you time and money, plus you will be more likely to stay with the hobby. Good luck flying.

Frazzled, by all means, PLEASE do yourself a really big favor and get an instructor. You`re right when you said you observed a certain passion on the part of the flyers you were watching. What you will come to find is that it will most probably be very easy to find someone who will be more than willing to share that passion for RC flying with you as they serve as your instructor. Find a local club and attend a meeting. I guarantee you that you will find members who will enourage you to join them at the field. There are things you will learn from your instructor and others that no sim will teach you ( how to trim a plane in flight, how to tune an engine, what equipment you should use, the list is endless ). Finally, I dare say you will find that the best part of this hobby ( yes, even better than the planes themselves and the flying ) will be the friends you will make. I know it has been for me.

Frazzled,

It would appear that you are pretty set on going it alone so here is are few very basic questions for you.

1. Can you start tune and diagnose the engine that is coming on the plane? A sim cannot teach you that.

2. Do you know how to trim the plane for straight and level flight? All the time looking at the plane trying to keep it level with the sticks. This is just the maiden flight and if it is a non computer radio without digital trimsand you bump the trims inbetween flights then you have to do it again. Again a sim will always start out pre-trimmed.

These are everyday things that you need to know and being at a club gets you all of this and lots more.

It's not absolutely imperative that you join a club and the AMA but I strongly suggest you do. It's your call though. It's a great hobby, but crashing the new plane on it's first flight really bites. An instructor will most definite increase the odds of a very succesful first flight. It's a known fact that the first flight of most planes last less than 1 minuite with someone new. A sim will help but there is allot more to it.

Good Luck

I must reiterate that I think joining the AMA is imperative. I know many people have a great time for years without joining. I know also, that there are some other organizations which provide similar services and any one of them will do.

My primary reason for this position is simply the liability insurance coverage. Most homeowners policies do not cover modeling. Perhaps it is because I live in California, where the average person gets sued at least once before the age of 65. I would hate for you to lose your house because of an inadvertent crash into a group of kids or someone's prize Bull worth a million dollars or more.

I wish you the best of luck, but don't risk all you have worked for to save $50 a year.

BubbaGates is right...you need to learn a lot more than controls to do this successfully. You will need to know what to do in order to safely start, tune and trim your plane. When to check the Rx pack voltage, what to do when a crash is inevitable.....the list goes on. A club and instructor will save you time, money and frustration. ALL AMA Chartered/Sanctioned clubs require membership in the AMA before lessons or flying privileges are offered. At least I think ALL of them do.

Best of luck to you.

I have flown military and civilian planes since 1953 and have been building and flying models since 1939. A newcomer to RC models always has some trouble with disorientation dispite full size aircraft experience. When you head out for your solo take one of two things with you; an experienced RC pilot or a 35 gallon plastic garbage bag. Hey, get some one to help. Please

DON'T DO IT WITHOUT an INSTRUCTOR or at least someone that knows what they are doing, PLEEESE !!!!!!!!

Frazzled,
Please listen to what everybody has already said, find an instructor. I am an instructor at my field and I can guarantee that you are not "bothering" the instructors at your field. We instruct because we enjoy doing it. If it was a bother I assure you that I wouldn't do it. A lot of posts before me have told you a few things to think about, but I'm going to address a few that haven't been covered yet.

First, yes you have spent a lot of time on the simulator and you think that you have learned a lot. But there are things that the simulator can't teach you. There is one huge one that it doesn't teach, but luckily there is an easy way to fix that and learn it. Before you even put fuel in the plane for the first time, take the plane out to you back yard. Put the plane together like you're going to fly it. Then step back exactly 10 feet from the plane. Scream at the top of your lungs, run at full speed and jump right in the middle or your plane. What will this teach you?? It will teach you to repair your plane. Because if you try to teach yourself to fly, you WILL crash and you WILL have to repair your plane.

Second. Sure you can fly anyplace you want to. But first please make sure that there aren't any flying fields within 2-3 miles of where you want to fly. Why? Because as soon as you turn on your radio if there is a flying field near you are going to make an instant enemy, they guy who was flying his $5,000 46% Ultimate that you just shot down by turning on your radio. Among other things, flying fields have a frequency management system in place to prevent this from happening. And a side note on this, crashing somebody Else's plane is the BEST thing you can do. What are you going to do if you turn on and his plane goes out of control and crashes into a crowd of people and kills somebody??

Am I being a little flippant with my attitude? Yes. The same attitude you took in your posts, so I'm just trying to get your attention. Some of the ideas you voiced can be plain out dangerous. Please go to the field and have an instructor teach you. Flying is the least of things taught by the instructor. Yes they teach you to fly. They also teach you how to safely start and tune you plane, they teach you to safely move your plane from the pit to the runway, they teach you to fly safely, they teach you how to clean your plane, how to adjust your plane, how to repair your plane, how to buy a second plane, set up a second plane, help you maiden flight your second plane, they show you money saving tricks and tips on what to buy and not to buy (did you know that you can save money by buying those rubber bands that hold on the wings at Office Depot and not from the hobby store?? An instructor does), etc . . . The thing is that there is so much that you don't even know that you need to know. Please get an instructor.

Ok, I'll climb off of my soap box now.

Get an instructor! And get an AMA membership. I say this because once you start flying, making good landings, do some aerobatics,
tuning your engine so its running like a top, you are gonna want to go to some of the local club fly-ins and other "rc parties".
For me, its as much as meeting other people with the same passion you have and, looking at other flyer's models. Heck, you can sit there and BS for hours!!!!
Also, an instructor can give you pointers on: pre-flight checks, safety issues so your not at the ER getting stitches, engine performance tips etc. I mean, just alot of things that can be taken for granted. Is your spinner and prop on tight? How tight are the main gear and wheels so they don't come off from engine vibration in flight? Sure your servos and battery connection are snug?
When you move the stick left, is your left aileron moving in the correct direction? Things such as these play a huge role in in getting your airplane up in the air and flying correctly. New flyers will omit half the items mentioned here and their model becomes fodder for the "crash" forum.

Dave...

Frazzel,

I must say that I have re-read your post and we did fail to basically answer your question. It is not uncommon for a RC pilot to fly in other places than a RC Park (field) BUT, these people are usually able to fly without help. There is the odd person out there that has successfully trained themselves but they will all tell you that they also had to learn how to repair the plane. There is a HUGE thread in the beginners forum that addresses learning on your own. The general response is the same as you got here but as I already mentioned they all had to rebuild more than once and most say that if they had to do it again they would get someone experienced to help out.

They other thing we did not address is your statement about taking bets. I can say with certainity that something like that is not the norm. In everycase where I have been around students, everyone is watching for usually 2 reasons, 1, just how well the student is doing, 2. if the plane does get out of control, most want to be sure which way to go.

Now, I am not saying that because everyone wants to laugh at you or think your are doing badly, It's just that students do tend to do some really off the wall things and even the best instructors cannot possibly save every plane every time. Inverted, screaming straight down pointed at the pits with only 50 feet to recover can and usually does end in disaster and I know I would sure want to get out of the way.

If you did not get the warm and fuzzies the first day that doee not mean that is the norm for the club. As in everything else, there are those who would rather not be bothered and those who are more than willing to get involved and help. Some will come up and introduce themselves other will help only when asked. Our club has a bunch of great people and will help. Very few will come up and ask, others will stroll right up to a new person.

In either case, the next thing you know is you have several people over taking a look at your new toy, checking it out for saftey of flight and offering to help you do the first flight.

I see you as being slightly shy in asking for help. I see that you would rather do it on your own for the pride of being able to say I did it. But I will say that once you do your first takeoff and especially your first landing and everything is in one piece then those are 2 moments that you will never forget. An experenced person/instructor can make that a reality in a very short time.

This is a fun hobby/addiction but it takes disicpline and time. Whatever you chose to do, good luck.

I have a Nexstar. Yes they showcase it as an easy to fly plane, yes it floats in on landings but my first landings were with an instructor and if he had not been there walking me through it I'd have crashed the plane. Also, Nexstars are quirky on take offs (want to pull to the right) - so just be ready for that sucker to dart off at full throttle. The sims are great but they are 1) EASY to land on, nothing like a real plane and 2) no match for someone there with you in case you get into trouble.

I know you want to do this yourself and some people do it but when you're putting your plane together (even the RTF requires some assembly) just think of all that work going to waste and bringing home a box of sticks.

Thank you guys for the great information. You have definetely sold me. I will search for an instructor. Again thanks for you service to this forum.

I was in the same boat you were in about a year ago. I bought a Nexstar, thinking I'd teach myself to fly it. When it finally arrived, and I saw how pretty that bird was, and how fragile it was... It kind of made me think twice about teaching myself to fly. So, I joined a club. I finally worked it into my schedule to meet with an instructor. He maidened it for me on that day, but due to the time, it was the only flight that got put on the plane. Weeks went by and I wasn't able to make time to meet with an instructor again. So, after feeling confident from flying the sim, I decided to take my plane and head up to the local school yard and have a whack at it myself. I got the plane up in the air just fine, even flew around fine. That is, dodging lightposts, trees, buildings. The area looked a lot smaller once I got that plane up in the air!!! Anyways, after about 4 or 5 minutes I decided to try and bring it in and land. Pull it around over the trees, cut the trottle and the engine dies. Ok, no problem, I can do this, right? Wrong! Before I knew it, the plane was still cruising way to fast and I was running out of room. Swing set comes up, I pull back. Tree comes up, I turn left. Chain link fence comes up, I'm out of airspeed to pull up, and WHAM!! My planes engine is turned at a 90 degree angle, and the firewall is cracked. Damn!
Anyways, point being... Take the time and get an instructor. IT IS WELL WORTH IT!!!
After getting an instructor, and having him talk me through the flying, I was landing my plane on the second time on the buddy box. I was solo within no time. The simulator helped me a lot! There is no way I could have even been close to being able to land my plane so soon without it. But the instructor proved to be invaluable. My nexstar is still in flying condition today! Without an instructor, the plane would never have survived! And I"m sure I wouldn't have stuck with the hobby if that would have happened. Now I have 4 planes, all flight worthy!

THANKS TO ALL THE INSTUCTORS OUT THERE!! MUCH APPRECIATED!!!

Frazzled,

If you need help finding a club in your area, just ask on the forum. Or...go to the AMA website. ( I have found the search feature to be uh....sucky). I hope you have a great time!! Just remember that it takes effort, time and a bit of money to really enjoy this hobby. Take your time, get a good instructor, (by 'good' I mean one you can connect with on a personal level; not the one who can do the best aerobatics), and LEARN from him/her.

Congratulations..... and welcome to the best 'waste of money' you have ever seen. We all love this hobby and would like to see more people stick with it. It is not easy to learn. I am still learning myself. BUT...I will tell you that the people I have met and the things I have learned are invaluable.

Welcome and TAKE YOUR TIME!!