I am looking at buying my first airplane. I already have a radio and servos. JR xp6102 radio and sub micro jr servos. I want an electric plane small enough to fly in a ball park and easy to fix...I have been looking at the Flatouts by Great Planes but I am unsure of what would be a good starting point.? Any ideas?

Thanks

Well I guess I'll go ahead & be the bad guy, the one that has to tell you these aren't beginner planes & that you should be thinking about a highwing trainer type plane & an instructor. The Flat-outs are a nice series of Foamies, that are all basically intended for 3D flying which comes later down the road after we have learned to fly. You have a nice Radio, I just bought the 6102 myself w/standard size digital servos and the R700 reciever.

Starting out with a 3D Foamie, would be kind of like never learning to walk & then trying to run a marathon race! I know this isn't what you wanted to hear, but unfortunately my brother it is the truth. I've been there & crashed that!

I gather from your mention of wanting an electric that you can fly in as small an area as a ball field. Does this mean you have no interest what-so-ever in joining a club, but just want to be able to parkfly?? If we knew the answer to that ?? we could better assist you. Because the best way to learn to fly RC is to 1st. Join the AMA, 2nd. Find your local club & go meet some ppl there, get hooked up with one of their instructors (club instruction is free), 3rd. Get a High-wing Trainer to learn on. While I realize they aren't the cool looking kind of plane that most of us want to fly, the Trainer will be a handfull, & without proper instruction & a buddy box so the instructor can save your plane for you, you will most certainly crash it. Usually within the first fews seconds after lift off, if not on the runway itself before you ever even get it off the ground.

If in deed it is just parkflying you are interested in there are other models that will be alot easier to fly than a Flatout. Even then without some kind of proper training by an experienced RC Pilot, you will more than likely crash it.

Give us a little more info as to where you really want to get to within the Hobby & we will help you all we can, sorry for the bad news, but stay with us it's gets much better if we have the patience to learn. Then you will be hooked on the greatest Hobby/Desease I know of.

I have to agree with elenasgrumpy. Electric are defintetly not the type of planes to start with but there are some trainer electics out there. Like the GP PT-20 electric and Ultraflys Cessna is expected to fly nice.But i still think youd be spending more money "fixing it" than just joining a club and AMA and get really training. It's extremly hard to train yourself and even harder on an electric. But keep in mine everything said here is tips you dont have to listen, its just common sense to.

I taught myself how to fly for less than 3 hundred bucks.

I suggest you go over to the electrics forum where you can find what your looking for.

If i were to actually help you out here, a great plane to start off with by YOURSELF, would be the gws slow stick. You can get the plane, and then purchase at least 3 "slope gliders" of the same plane. A slope glider is just like the real plane but it doesnt come with a motor system , just the plane parts. So if you were to crash and kill the plane, take out the motor system and put it in one of these slope gliders. You would be able to repair the plane with no problem. Here are the links:

GWS Slow Stick:

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXHCJ2&P=0

Slope Glider:

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXHCJ3&P=0

I totaled the sum and it comes to less then a hundred bucks. (1 Slow Stick ARF + 3 Slope Gliders)

Honestly, i think you can teach yourself to fly with this setup.

And I honestly think that a better use of the $63 up front investment in spare parts for the inevitable self-learning fly, crash, repair cycles would be better spent joining the AMA and finding an instructor. While we do see occasional reports from people who are self-taught, there are just as many who saw the light and got help, and even more who just give up and find another hobby.

I brought my Slow Stick with me to the field last Saturday. There was a new person who had joined the AMA, but had not yet bought a trainer plane. I wasn't in the mood for teaching, so I offered to let one of the other instructors use my plane to give him some flying time. If he hadn't been on a buddy box, the plane would have been toast, several times.

Also remember that while the slope version has many of the replacable parts, the prop and gear box are right up front and are likely to suffer damage too.

Yes, there is a common theme when anybody talks about teaching themselves to fly. And that theme is Get an Instructor. If I had to venture a guess I would say that it's about 1% or so of people can successfully teach themselves to fly, and out of those they ALL have to repair/replace their planes at least once. I can't urge enough to get an instructor to learn to fly. It's probably the MOST important factor in learning to fly.

Ken

Try flying on your puter. You can download a free flight sim called FMS and give it a go. The graphics aren't fancy but the flight characteistics are pretty accurate. It can be set up to fly using the key pad and there are places on the web where you can buy an adapter to use for your radio. [8D]

Here's a list of my kills while learning to fly on my own, I do believe these 5 kills make me an Ace!

1) Mountain Models Swtchback

2) SR Cutie

3) Sig Rascal

4) Edge 549 Shockflyer Foamie

5) Yak-54 Foamie

They didn't neccessarily dye in that order, but they are still just as dead!

You are indeed an ace. [sm=thumbup.gif] Paint the "kill" badges on the side of your current models [8D]

Edge 549?? Apparently I suffer from more than just dumb thumbs, but fingers too!! I meant Edge 540

Britbrat, I am seriously thinking about it, If only I could draw! [&:]

Man, what did those planes do to deserve such a fate?

Chuck, Their only crime was coming in to my possession, a fatal mistake indeed![X(]