Evening, Afternoon or Morning together (depending on where you are at in the world),

after spending several months of thinking of a new hobby, I have finally arrived at fixed-wing RC planes.

Well, I already found out that this can be a very expensive hobby, if you dont take your time to learn it.

Basically, I found an RC Plane Club nearby, which I plan to visit and check out before starting (and if only to get a reconfirmation and to know what guys im gonna have to deal with).

I do have a grasp of basic aerodynamics, but not to the point that I could actually build a plane and hope that it flies (I might get the wings right-side up but on the wrong sides...)

I plan - if I can get my hand on one - to buy a used training plane. What I would like to know is what I should watch out for. Like what kind of plane should a total beginner use, etc.
I will also try to get some instructor training, but I think that I cannot really fly someone elses plane and then crash it. It would not feel ok to me, even if the owner would be fine with it.

So: How do I get started (beside finding a club to join)?

Cheers
Sid

Hopefully the club you choose will have instructors. Getting your instructor's advice on plane/engine/radio is a really good idea. Also, if someone in the club has a trainer plane for sale, the instructor can inspect it to be sure it is worth buying.
Popular first planes in the US include
Sig Kadet LT-40
Great Planes PT-40 or 60
Tower Hobbies Trainer, 40 or 60 size
Hobbico Superstar, Hobbistar, or Avistar
Thunder Tiger Trainer, 40 or 60 size
Hangar 9 Alpha or Arrow
There are literally dozens of excellent trainer airplanes. I have no idea what's available in Germany but I'd imagine there are a bunch of good ones we've never heard of.

Hello Sid, seeing as you are thinking of taking up this wonderful hobby , I will give you a site to look up , that i think you will find very useful to you as a new student to piloting model aircraft. the site is , http://www.bmfa.org/
Save this into your favourites in your computer so you can study it at your leasure, it will give you a lot of info that will be helpful to you from choosing a type of trainer to lessons you will learn when flying. Hope this helps and keep us informed of your progress. We are always here to help with any question
the_madgenius Instructor downunder in Australia.

This link is to a build thread for a Sig Kadet LT-40 kit
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_34...tm.htm#3439708

RCKen is doing detailed documentation to take some of the fear out of kit building. Just looking at the photos you can tell he is a master craftsman. I have built 2 kits. I am not a master craftsman. Fortunately you do not have to be a master craftsman to build a good flying plane. You do have to take your time to be sure it's straight and that you have good glue joints but it is not as hard as I thought it would be. I have flown one of my builds, a Great Planes PT-60 trainer. My instructor took the PT-60 up for the first time and it needed very little trim adjustment to fly properly. The other plane will fly this spring.

The point of this follow-up is just to say: don't be afraid to build a plane just because you've never done it. And if you do not have space, time, patience, or desire to build; most of the planes in my other post are ARF (almost ready to fly) models that take anywhere from a few hours to a few weekends to assemble.

The only thing I consider myself a master at is fixing computers

Yeah, ok, so I actually crashed an IBM mainframe, but that was an accident

Seriously, I am a trained application developer. I am pretty good at typing, but this kind of "exercise" really does NOT give you a "steady hand".

I actually "built" something once - and I refused all help - out of a hobby book for boys (sic! like girls couldnt built stuff). It was a very basic submarine model, built out of hardwood and metal print sheets (i dont know how they are called in English, in German it would be "Druckfolien"), which were glued to the skeleton.

Well, long story short, it did work. Once. The sinking part.

You show me an UML diagram for an application and I can program it, but with plans... no way I am gonna try that on my first plane

I tried some flying with the "FMS" freeware and my joypad, knowing that this isnt the same, and I found it pretty hard to keep one axis straight when handling the other one.

I heard that RC controllers - as well as the "Dual Shock"-Game-Pad I have - are springloaded on all axis?

Well, after all, I am basically pretty tense about crashing It's not like I have much money to spend on repairs, but I consider myself lucky for not having to support a family yet

Cheers
Sebastian (I feel sorry for using my Internet Nickname, but thats usually what I do in boards )

P.S.: Thanks for all the welcomes

It is customary, at least in the US, to get in touch with a club instructor, then to get familarized with the particulars of flight that are specific to the beginner portion of RC Aircraft. No need to know the entire Aresti chart by memory just yet. Then the Instructor, at least the wise ones will connect two transmitters with a "buddy cord". This allows the instructor to have primary control of the aircraft, with discretionary control given to the student. Meaning??? The instructor takes the plane up to a safe altitude, two or three "mistakes high" and holds down on a switch or button, this then gives the student control of the plane, the instructor then instructs the student what to do. If the student begins to show signs of confusion, or makes a sudden deviation from instruction, the instructor can release the switch and resume control...after a few race track circuits, the instructor lands the aircraft. The next and subsequent flights would involve repetition of learned movements and additional manuevers as well as emergency(stall recovery, simulated deadstick landings, etc) procedures........Hardly any reason to fear the student crashing an aircraft... Guten Aben von Amerika

SoonerAce, seeing your sig kind of reminds me of the "DA"-Slogan:

"Gravity - it is not a guideline, it is the law" (with DA standing for Darwin Awards, of course).

Anyway, thanks for the info. I did not even know that RC planes could be flown with a student-teacher control. It makes sense, though I think I am an utter newbie after all

Oh, and thanks for the greetings "Guten Morgen" to you from here Its 2 am and I just cannot sleep. Been having some personal problems lately, so that is probably what keeps me awake.

I am really sad I only visited the US once in my life (yet), since I had my most thrilling experience ever during my stay in the US in 1998. We were driving along either a highway or interstate from Ft. Lauderdale to Miami one day, and all of a sudden my buddy hit the brakes on this Audi 5000 p-o-s, almost making me hit my head on the dashboard. I was going to yell at him, but at the same second, a 2-engine plane (I think I remember it being called a "Citation" in the news that day) was flying by us, making a landing right there on the highway.

It turned out to be a "regular" landing, though, not a crash, so after checking with the pilot and staying with him until the police arrived, we were on our way.

And after telling this story back in Germany, I (an 18-year-old back then) I learned that actually most of the straight parts of the Autobahn could be converted to runways in a matter of 2 to 3 hourds, with lighting and all the stuff only having to be attached to pre-placed pits and poles. Pretty amazing, how close WWIII was in the last century...

Cheers
Sebastian

carrellh,
Thanks for the kind words. I am doing that thread to hopefully show people that building a plane isn't near as hard as they might have thought it would be. In today's ARF age many people just assume that it's difficult to build a plane because so few people are doing it these days. But that's not anywhere near the truth. IMHO 98%-99% of those out there that think it's too difficult find out once they try that's not nearly as hard as they thought it would be. In fact, since I started that thread I've had 7 people (yes, I am keeping score!!! ) saying that they are building a kit now because of my thread gave them the confidence to do it. That was my goal right from the start and I'm glad I could help people out there.

Sidargo,
Welcome to the addiction!!! This is a great hobby. I've been in it for 10 years and I consider myself as just getting started. I have a list about as long as my arm of kits and planes that I want to build!!!! Heck, my list for the next few months has 4 builds planned. Not to mention what's already hanging in my garage!!!!!

I usually try to steer people away from buying used planes, unless you know the person you are getting it from. Even for an experienced pilot it's really hard to tell the condition of a used plane, and for a new person it could be almost impossible. I'm not saying that it's not possible to get a good deal on a used plane, I'm just saying that you have to be really careful. The first step would be to find an instructor and then let them help you get a plane. I'm sure that all clubs are pretty much the same everywhere around the world, you can hook up with an instructor and he can point you towards a plane for sale. Heck, if you lived here where I do I could get you hooked up with a trainer outfit that's for sale in about 20 minutes!! Either building a kit as mentioned above, or getting into just about any of the good ARF/RTF's that are on the market today is a great way to get going in the hobby.

Hope this helps

Ken

Ken,

thanks for the encouragement. I think I might eventually build my own plane some day. it sure sounds like a good idea to know about the planes innards - one might have to repair or reinforce them - but I am simply too scared to have to write off money without actually getting to fly. I feel pretty confident about doing the wiring and electronics, having developed some basic PCBs and programs for embedded computing myself, but the wood-works are probably over my limit right now.

I do not even have the tools required to repair a wooden chair. I have enough screwdrivers, pliers and multimeters to fill a whole garage, but getting only the basic saws, clamps etc. will probably require a year or two, since I always opt for quality equipment. I had a cheap set of screwdrivers and pliers once, which were a birthday present, only to have them break and detoriate over a few months of use. Since then, I buy my tools one at a time (no sets ever) and only those I really need.

None of these tools has ever let me down, so I am gonna stick with that, should I decide to "upgrade" for woodwork. Good tools do make a difference - and as an expert, you will probably agree on that.

Well, I am gonna get in touch with the club in the next days and try to figure out where to look for models. The shop where I once got my only "RC Car" has since closed down, unfortunately.

And kudos to you for building a plane for someone who needs support.

Cheers
Sebastian Schneider
(My FDs Website: http://www.feuerwehr.kreuztal.de )