My school has a senior project that basicly allows you to do anything if you
-have a product
-learned something
-write a decent paper on the subject

my first two ideas fell through and this i think is my last idea.

since i have no rc airplane experience im hoping some people here can help me choose compnents for the project.,

i preferably want a realistic looking plane.
i know there will be a learning curve and ill probly use the simulater first.
preferably priced 300 MAX

im willing to build the plane no foam easy build stuff please

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXM398&P=0
this caught my attention.

response asap please only have a little over a month

You MIGHT be able to pull this off in a month, but it will require A LOT of your time. If you've never built a plane before, house of balsa kits are not a good place to start. They have typically no plans, and poor instructions. They are "builders" kits. Especially the small ones. I'd build a trainer if I were you. Could you not do an ARF? You could pull that off in your amount of time. Plus, you might even learn how to fly it before it's due. That way, you could show the instructor EVERYTHING you've learned!!!

Let me second 2slow's comment a little over a month is going to be tight to build a kit!!! Might want to think of a different project

You've got little time and a huge amount of work ahead of you. I also think you should go with an ARF trainer. I'm going to go against my usual advice and suggest that you consider an electric ARF. I say this because you can get a nice park flier, radio, and basic equipment and stay within your budget. The really cool part is if you get some help learning to fly, and put in enough time with the plane and simulator, it's quite likely that you can not only show the plane to your teacher, you can take it out to one of the school fields and do some demo flights. Doing the paper should be easy. Take some pictures as you're assembling the plane. Read up on how a proportional radio system works and then provide a summary. Explain each of the control surfaces and how they effect the flight path of the plane. Throw in some stuff on how the wing generates lift. Should be more than enough to ace the project.

I would strongly suggest a different option. I have helped a few kids who have put it off to this point too, and it isn't going to happen. You would have to work a ton on it to finish it, and you can't fly a P-51 for a first kit, let alone build it.

If you seriously want to do one on RC planes, then get an eagle II from goldberg or something like it, get going with someone that can help you asap and you may get it done. You will need to work on it at least one full day on the weekend, and at least 2 to 3 full nights during the week to get it done. If you want to invest that much time and energy, go for it. If you can't commit to it, forget it. Its not going to finish itself and if you don't put 100% effort into it, you won't get it done.

Don't mean to blow your thoughts on it, but I have seen it too many times and I am not going to sugar coat it.

i have two rc cars. both i built in straight hours of work.

the building i dont think should be a problem for me, its more of the learning to fly. i feel like buying a plane that just snaps together is cheating out on the project.

my first choice for it was to build a scale rollercoaster from scratch but i wasted a week to find that it would probly take alot more time then i had.
the second was to learn how to ride a motorcycle safely and get a lisense, but all the classes are booked till summer.


my plan was to learn to fly and show it off to the class..... who cares if i crash it mid flight in front of everyone.... probly get me a wow factor into the grade.
i prefer gas cause i know how to work with the engines and jut overall like them more

TehArrow,

After reading your second post I would STRONGLY recommend a DIFFERENT project. Building a simple balsa kit wil take you about 30-60 hours Learning to fly it will enough to be able to safely "show" it off in front of your clas is NOT going to happen.

Piper Chucks Electric idea wasn't bad. But to be blunt you simply do not know enough nor do you have enough time learn the skills neccessary to build and fly an R?C plane in a little over a month.

The clocks ticking go find a realistic project and come back here when you have the time to learn correctly

what if the deadline is extended towards mid june


if i bought a arf trainer asap would i be able to learn in time?

Ask yourself this one simple question are you willing able to spend 30-60 hours just building the kit this doesn't include an extra 5-10 hours to get you to the point where you know how to fly just well enough to be dangerous. Nor does it include what ever time it takes you to write up your report and what ever else your teacher requires for your project.

Maybe you could pick two or three airplanes that had a significant role in the early days of flight during the 20 century. You could build a plastic model of each and describe what made that plane special.

I don't mean to burst your bubble but I don't see you being able to finish your project even if the deadline is extended.

30-60 hours to build a arf? its almost ready to fly.... am i right? the paper is NO problem there is no length restriction its only quality

forget about the project part.... we are focusing on the time to learn



btw my school is on the same block as my house so i have a **** load of possible field time for learning

Hey Dude!
I just graduated high school last june and i was looking for a hobby, like you a warbird caught my eye and it was a F-4U Corsair. I was so nieve to think that i could make something like that with out any experience in R/C planes and i never could finish my corsair its now junk because i ruined it.

My advice to you is this just make a trainer, with this you can kill 2 birds with 1 stone. Find a trainer that has some history, make it then you can learn on it. You mentioned you want something easy you can buy foam cores for a few bucks and just sheet them can the fuse is pretty straight foward.

There are lots of r/c plane stuff happening in New Jersey just look around there may be some people to help you.

I hope you wont abandon r/c planes when your project is finished.

Everyone is probably gonna tell you to get a trainer and it would be wise to heed their word. War Birds are for people with many years of r/c under their belt.

i understand the warbird thing now...

just like the you cant start on a sport bike for a motorcycle thing (which i am doing with or without the project)

ill keep the plane and use it but i doubt ill invest in future planes.

my 2 nitro cars suck enough money


I WILL START WITH AN ARF TRAINER. DOES THIS GIVE ME ENOUGH TIME TO LEARN

I've built TA RC10B3's in 2 1/2 hours from box to running.... The last plane I built took me about a month.... and that was working just about EVERY NIGHT after work.... There's a BIG difference between screwing some pieces together in the right spot and sanding, gluing, aligning, mounting, covering, painting, etc... It's a LOT! of work... Even ARF's can be time consuming depending on what you get... My last ARF took about a week to put together (evenings after work)...

As for the flying part... With a real plane it's just not gonna happen in that time frame... IF you get a simulator and spend MANY hours on it... Like a couple hours each night, then you have a shot at it within the allocated time frame... Now of course your talking about spending more money on a "training" aid...

having field time doesn't mean squat if you don't have an instructor there with you to help....

Does an arf count? If so it could take you as little as 10hrs or as much as 30hrs. I spent 6 hours setting up the Radio gear alone in an ARF Cub once. I spent 4 hours assembling and RTF trainner once

So what. Most schools fields are not large enough to fly glow powered planes in. Where is the nearest club thats where you need to go to learn.

Build the model and learn to fly because its fun don't rush it for a project deadline you will end up either messing up the assembly or crashing the model.

I highly suggest you do something else. With an attitude like that, you stand a very high chance of crashing into the crowd and hurting someone very badly. We don't need that in the industry. If you can't spend the time to do it right, don't do it at all.

ok.... so it's "possible"

can i get a recommended trainer set up
if i need more money im sure my mother would pitch in for a school project

that will not happpen..... im not immature. i just recognize that i wont have alot of learning time. im flying the plane over the field. there will be no people in the field only a small number of students probly on the farther side of the parking lot.

You're not listening!!!!! NO it is not possible to build the plane ARF or kit and LEARN to fly it well enough to demonstrate in front of your class. Which part of this don't you understand.

posts are just appearing mid thread where i havent seen them before.... kinda weird

So, you only hear what you want to hear from people.

Yes, if you do an ARF, it is possible to get it in the air faster. No, a month, you can not learn to fly it well enough to fly it in front of a crowd, and if you don't join a club and get an instructor, you will have wasted all of your moms hard earned money.

What part of high speed spinning prop on the front of the plane don't you get. If you fly in a neighborhood and lose control, you have the potential to kill someone. Last year, there were at least 3 deaths from RC airplanes hitting people.

Unfortunatly you do seem to not only be immature but thick headed as well. Let me explain a few simple things to you 1st the trainner plane is capable of flying 50-70mph. That means that its going to travel across your school fields in a matter of seconds. 2nd there is this well known law called Murphy's law that states quite simply "Anything that can happen usually will happen"

Your immaturity and failure to listen to those of us with experience is putting your classmates at physical risk and exposing you and your parents to a considerable financial risk (think Law suit).

i get alot of it HENCE learning on simlulater. using an arf in stead of a kit. stop treating my like some ignorant *insert bad word*. i understand these limitations and im trying to find ways around problems to make things possible. if all you have to say is stuff against me then dont talk.\


edit: i know how fast 70mph is my rc car gets pretty close to that. there a possibility i could hit a kid or a car in the school parking lot... does that mean it happened? no?

If you don't want to hear the real answers, don't ask the question.

Oh to be quite so young and dumb.... again

Teh Arrow good luck hopefully we won't be seeing you and your plane on the evening news[X(]