Hi all, need some help..

I am in the process of building a spitfire for my first plane, and have never flown before, I am looking for a cheap trainer, but all I seem to come across are delta wings or shoulder mount wings, are there any bottom mounted trainer craft out there? prefferably nitro but leccy will do if it is the only option..

thanks.

The sig four star is considered a low wing trainer, but for your first plane, i would get a highwing, they might look like they can't do anything, but you would surprise yourself on what the highwings can do. I personally have the superstar and like it, but if i were you i would go with the avistar which is a bit more aerobatic

i'm flying the avistar as my first trainer, but i have real flight g2 to practice. if you've never flown before, dont try and fly the spit... it wont end well. i would get a high wing trainer and become proficient, get a low wing plane second and then move on to the spit.

i've only been in this for about a year so take my advice with a grain of salt.

Find a local club with an instructor, he will be able to show you what is available in your country. It probably is not the same as over here. You do not want a plane the is a SCALE replica of ANYTHING. It just doesn't work out well in modeling for a first plane. I won't get into the reasons here, they are lengthy. You really NEED a high-wing trainer aircraft for your first plane that will fly fairly slow for landings but will still have maneuverability to a degree.There are many of these to choose from in the US and I'm sure over there also. As I said before, Find a local club. You should be able to locate one through your local modeling society or local hobby shop.

I wish you luck on this and welcome you to the hobby.

The above posts offer good advise. Please follow it, you won't be sorry. Ignore it and you will end up thinking everyone is crazy for trying to try and fly these things because yours only lasted 8 seconds![8D]

have you ever built flying models before. If not don't build the spitfire yet. There are a lot of little things to learn about building flying models before you want to build something that is as hard to fly as a spitfire without adding in any building mistakes that occur from ignorance. Some newby building problems are not having the wing 90 to fuse and tail surfaces equally spaced from wing tips. makeing sure that the angle of incidence from the wing to the tail surfaces are correct. there are a lot of little things that become more critical in the more advanced faster flying aircraft. the scale planes especially warbirds have high wing loadings that require greater speed to fly and you use the high wing trainers to get confidence and build automatic reactions so you can fly faster planes without thinking about corrections. the trainers are more forgiving of construction mistakes or errors.

thanks for the advice all, I just thought trying to find a low wing trainer would be a good idea as my main plane will be the spit, and charecteristics would be similar, but high wing it is. a friend of mine suggested a zagi, butnot sure if it would fly the same as a normal plane. As for a club the only local one to me has just stopped so the nearest is about 50 miles out. not worried about the build as I have plenty of experience building varios models, taking my time and double checking ewverything, at the moment the wife thinks the spit is to hang from the ceiling of my young sons bedroom

I would estimate you are about a year from flying the Spitfire if you fly fairly often. Even though the club closed, try to find someone from it to help you.

I would make the club a saturday thing. Traveling 50 miles will save you a bunch of planes even with todays gas, just stay out there and don't just stay for and hour and leave stay for 2-3 and ask questions and such

She is EXACTLY correct...

unless you want the plane to last one takeoff, one short flight, and one crash......

warbirds are cool, but they are NOT easy flyers......but if you insist.... just remember to take video as there is a Crash video forum here too

I think he gets the message

basic steps

1- high wing trainer
2- low wing trainer
3- something sporty, or something silly if your confidant


Looking at you sig the radio install and engine setup wont be a problem, so it's really just the flying that you need to get the hang of,

A high wing trainer is normally the first plane simply because their easier to fly, when your flying for real, the adrenaline's pumping, your a bit shaky you'll have your hands full just doing circuits for a while, sim or no sim.


The biggest advantage you have, being (i assume) pretty good with the ground based RCs is the flying towards you, it's one of the biggest hurdles to get over, but once you get the hang of the controls, and get the feel of flying it should come naturally

BTW, i come from an RC car background, and it really does help alot, but for jumping to aircraft you still need to start at the bottom and work up, well, i say bottom, but the .40 size trainers sill aren't the easiest things to fly, for that parkflyers are the way to go, the GWS slowstick pretty much flys itself


And just in case, you do know about the [link=http://www.bmfa.org]BMFA[/link]? they'll do your insurance (a must at most clubs, normally included in the club fee) and they have a good list of clubs on the site

Re: "I just thought trying to find a low wing trainer would be a good idea as my main plane will be the spit, and charecteristics would be similar" < the low wing would be similiar in that it will take off fast, climb fast, and turn on a dime, and thats the problem for a first plane! Everything would happen so fast that the plane would probably take off, start a fast climb out start to bank and turn into the ground, all before you could catch your breath and realize that the plane is now in little pieces. Even the speed of a high wing trainer will surprize you iof you haven't seen one fly. Start with a high wing as others have suggested. An electric powered Zagi wouldn't be a bad choce if you had to go it alone. They are pretty durable. [8D]

There are no low wing trainers with the same characteristics as a Spit. You have selected one of the more difficult warbirds to both build and fly. The Spit will be frighteningly fast, alarmingly responsive & utterly unforgiving. For example, there is no stall progession -- one second it is flying (even floating) & the next second it is a rock -- the entire wing stalls simultaneously. It won't want to to slow down to land, but it will just quit flying when you aren't ready. If you get in trouble at low speeds & goose it, there's a good chance that it will yaw strongly & roll over to the left. There are also other equally interesting characteristics just waiting to be experienced. Trainers of any configuration don't do this stuff, & a 4 Star is a wallowy wimp in comparison.

You aren't ready for a Spit, & you won't be for a good while yet.

DITTO, Many times over!!!! Hopefully you will listen. Many have been given the same advice, many didn't listen, and they no longer fly. I get so tired of people thinking they know more than the experienced guys. (ignorance is bliss).

If you fly it, you will crash it. End of story. Get a trainer, learn it, then a low wing trainer, learn it. Then get some advanced birds and learn them. You won't be ready for a spit for a while.

If you do fly it, take vid and put it on. It will be quite a sight

thanks for the advice guys but I only wanted some ideas for which trainer to look for, I havent once said I was gonna fly the spit straight up, so dont know why this post has changed to telling me not to. No offence but that was never the plan anyways, I am building the spit from scratch so the last thing I wanna do is mash it with only a few seconds flight time, Just for the record I am not that dumb. I got the spit because I have wanted to fly for a while, and also like building, the idea was to build it myself, so that it would give me some variation to my modelling, and also because I thought it would look cool in flight, but the main idea was to have it as a target to be the first real plane to fly after the training craft. Please try to give me the benefit of the doubt aswell as the benefit of your experience.

cheers

Lots of good trainers. If you have an instructor, a goldberg falcon III is awsome. It is faster than most trainers, so you won't learn and get bored right away. It is more of an advanced trainer. I use it for people who are sharp and learn fast. The regular eagle II type trainers are good too. They are flat bottom wing and float well and are easer to fly, but once you learn it, they get boring fast.

I would try one of these, or something like them. There are a ton that are almost exactly alike by different manufacturers.

I wouldn't jump right into a low wing. If you do, maybe a tiger or something like that by goldberg. The 4* series is a bit much. You will have more trouble learning on it.

Good luck. There are a lot of them out there. Pick one you like with your instructor, build it and have a blast.

claccytim,
I'll try to clear up why they thought you might be planning on learning on the Spit. I doubt that we could count how many times a beginner comes on here (or shows up at our fields) saying they have just bought <insert super fast warbird model name here> and they want to learn to fly. Plus, they have spent <# of hours> on <insert RC flight simulator here> and they can land perfectly every time. For those of us that have been in the hobby for awhile it has become an automatic response to advise to not learn on the warbird. I will apologize for those that assumed you were going to learn on the warbird.

I have a Goldberg Falcon II that I still break out and fly from time to time. It is a lot of fun to fly with a spirited 40 on it. I use a K&B 40.

Sorry claccytim -- my response was intended to help, not criticize. Before you fly the Spit spend a ton of time with a fast sporster like an Ultra Sport Plus.

Heck, welcome to the RC Hobby/Addiction. Hope you will have fun it it. Just my personal history here:

Sig Kadet LT 40

Sig Fazer

Dazzler

Sig Kadet LT 40 (2)

CG Ultimate 10-300, 60 size (99%built)

Uproar(still in box)

Stinson Reliant(still in box)

TF 1/5 P-51D Mustang (still in crate)



Until I perfect everything the Kadet can/will do, both good and bad, the Ultimate will sit in hanger. The Uproar and Stinson will be built and flown, and a low wing trainer will come into play somewhere and be extensively wrung out before the Stang takes its maiden. Just my two cents.