Hi all,

I used to be involved with RC airplanes 12+ yrs ago. I got into pointing dogs and hunting upland game heavily and am looking at reentering the hobby. I am mainly doing it because my son hates to hunt and this would give us something in common to do. Also I wouldn't mind getting into it again. Alot has changed since I've left the hobby. Where are all the kits now days!! Everything is ARF, kind of disappointing.

Anyway what would be a good cheap plane/radio combo to get that is very forgiving? My son will be 8 soon and he handles the G3 sim very well. He is very excited about RC airplanes. I am thinking of getting a small foam wing electric to start out with to see if he takes to it. I have all the gear for gas flight and building but no planes or radios anymore. Hopefully he will like it and we can start building a kit for gas flight. Any suggestions?

DogAddict

DogAddict,

How bout a GWS Slow Stick and a Futuba 4YF to start out with. That's what I used to get started with and it was a great combination for me. I have seen some guys mount floats on Slow Sticks as well, with good results. Good luck

Regards
Mike

well... i love the EZ Star from multiplex. it's safe because it's a mid fuse pusher, all foam. it's easy to see. it's super easy to fly, almost next to nothing to assemble and pretty good looking. after you master it on 3 channels, many people have modified it to have ailerons, larger control surfaces, brushless motor... the list goes on. it's also a favorite for simple aerial photography using a digital camera. that means you can have some mod projects with your son. but of course, it's not an extra or a cap so you may find it too manageable.

i had a friend that came off G3 into his very first plane, a fiberglass 40 size p-47 with retracts. he did pretty good. so it's really hard to tell these days what kind of plane makes a good first plane. but at 8, i think the EZStar is not bad...

I recently finished my Slow Stick and I ended up using the same radio, which until now has just served as a spare in case I needed to buddy box a student. I've flown it a couple times in the street at home (dead end and I'm the only one who lives on it). The first time I took it to the field I gave the radio to another of the instructors and let him fly the Slow Stick to give some stick time to someone who had never flown. So far, it's proven to be an inexpensive, durable and good flying plane.

I suppose a lot depends on you and your son and how invloved he wants to be. My daughter (8 yo)had her first flights on the buddy box flying my old Eagle 2 trainer two weeks ago and now has her own club membership!

Your son is going to take his lead from you. If you introduce him to flying by way of an glow-powered 40 size ARF ... that's what he'll be comfortable with.

there are some good ARF's out there if you have a glow engine and radio you can match them to a trainer for a 100$ and your out there. with a ARF you still need to do a little work some assembaly required my sons love helping me work on my planes even if they aren't much help they like hanging out at the work bench .cp140 hit it on the head if he is learning on a glow plane he will be comfortable with that kids love the noise and smoke, either way glad to see your back in the hobby

Thanks everyone,

I was leaning towards a Slo-vee or the Slow stick to get back into it. How would either of these be?

Here the local club might loose their flight spot at the airport so I don't know where I would go to fly glo engine planes. We have several parks that would work for the small electrics. Plus I don't want to dump a bunch into the annual club dues if my son isn't going to take to it.

DogAddict

Slow Stick is easy to assemble, flies well, and is fun.