Hey guys !

Am I glad that I found this forum, I'm a newbie in this, what I think will become a hobbie, so I'll start out by saying HI!!! to everybody.
I'm really interasted in starting out in this hobby as I've always been interasted in RC airplanes, but I've never actually built or flown one my-self. I do have quite a bit of experience building models, and RC cars, but never an airplane. I'm looking for a challenge, but something that I will be able to complete and fly.
I need some advice as to what to get for my first plane. I don't really want to get a trainer, but rather a something a little bit more advanced, but that's pretty easy to fly. I was looking at the Sig Four-Star 120 Kit .90-1.50,81" but I don't want to get it because my buddy has the exact same one, but I would really like to get something similar to it, with similar specs.
Please Help!!!!!!

Thanks
Moses

most newbies feel the same way,go to a flying club see what they are flying,most clubs have a trainer and a instuctor, the first flight is usually a freebie,then before you spent a lot of time and money you'll be able to answer your own question.

Welcome Moses912,

If you're really intersted in advice get a trinner and an instructor.

if you don't and you smash this plane into little bitty pieces will you be able or want to run right out to the store and buy another one? If the answer to this question is yes then don't buy a trainer.


You're not the first nor the last person to ask this question.

Some people will disagree with me... but trying to learn with a more advanced airplane is just stupid

It may even retard the learning process

Thanks for your replies guys:

I've been to an RC club before, thats what initially sparked my interest. I understand that things don't happen in one day, however, I would like to get started on building an airplane, and and in the mean time go to the town club and get some flying lessons. However, I do need some advice for what kind of an airplane to get, maybe someone knows of a good trainer airplane, or of something a little more advanced that's really easy to fly. Since I do have quite a bit of experience building, I think that my main problem will be flying it rather than building it.

Moses,

Greetings from Dayton!

I soloed my LT-40 this summer and would not advise anyone to try and learn on a 4*. I am, however, building a 4*60 this winter as a second plane.

Some possible alternatives to buying a trainer. Borrow or "rent" one from someone in the club. That's assuming the club doesn't have a trainer or limits the number of flights you can take on it. You may find someone who has outgrown a trainer but doesn't want to just get rid of it.

I think you'll find that a few dozen flights on a trainer will move you towards your 4* much better than trying it first and getting frustrated or (worse) smashing it to bits.

GB

I also say start out with a trainer. If you are dead set against this sound advice, and as long as you have a club nearby, and you want something like a 4*40, look into a Goldberg Tiger II or Tiger 60.

But don't even THINK of flying it without an instructor!

Thanks for your replies guys:

I've been to an RC club before, thats what initially sparked my interest. I understand that things don't happen in one day, however, I would like to get started on building an airplane, and and in the mean time go to the town club and get some flying lessons. However, I do need some advice for what kind of an airplane to get, maybe someone knows of a good trainer airplane, or of something a little more advanced that's really easy to fly. Since I do have quite a bit of experience building, I think that my main problem will be flying it rather than building it.

Everybody:

I'm really glad that I found this forum, it's really helpfull. Thanks guys.
Can somebody recommend a good trainer, one that will be fun to build and fly. And also does anyone know if the Tiger II or the Tiger 60 have die-cast parts, or if they are laser cut, or does it matter?
Thanks

die-cut

Last time I bought a Carl Goldberg model it was die-cut

With die cut kits you just have to be carefull removing the parts and you will need to do some more sanding really not a big deal.

I built the bones of the fuse to my super chipmonk in less then 2 hrs. Sheeting takes me longer

Moses,

I recently started flying in August of this year. I would suggest you do what I did.
I bought a trainer and learned how to fly, I'm actually still learning but I have soloed and so forth.
Any of the trainers will do fine but the most popular that I have seen is the Hobbico Superstar, SIG LT40 and the Avistar.

The Avistar may be a little more of what your looking for since the wing is symmetrical. The wing has a more rounded bottom in comparison to the flat bottom wings on the other trainers. It has less dihedral as well. This makes it more responsive and more aerobatic in comparison.

Anyway,
Shortly after buying my Trainer I bought a Sig 4 * 60 kit which I'm currently building and wont finish for a while.
Unless you buy all your building materials parts etc at one time, building your first kit will take some time.
I have been buying my supplies as I go along with the instructions and as needed.
Well thats my opinion, basically learn to fly on your trainer and build your second plane during that time.
The Ultra sticks are good second kits as well in my opinion, the 1.20 will probably be my third plane.

Oh, The 1.20 size plane is a mistake to start on, you will crash it at one point or another, probably multiple times.
Thats a lot more money to put into the dirt simply because you don't know how to fly. I would hate to see you dig holes with a nice .91 or 1.20 engine, but the choice is yours.


Well, once you learn your chances of crashing will be a lot less, and when you do crash you should have better skills to where you can limit the damage.

Its your choice, even if some people have the means to crash and start over with expensive planes, its just plain stupid to do that.

Good luck

Dbow

heheh

and here is his buddy.. as he was talking about

dan.. mine is a 60.. not a 120....

dan!

These guys are all very nice and knowledgable.. as I found out....

but.....

You don't have to buy a TRAINER if you don't want to.. you can learn to fly on a 4* or goldberg no problem.... just practise a lot on a sim... then fly with an instructor on a trainer (they have those for people to use in most clubs)... and finaly.. let the instructor fly your plane for the first time.. set the trims.. and practise with the instructor on another transimtter.. simple as that.. well... flying is the hard part

maybe i'm wrong.. never flew.. but i know one thing.. i won't let my baby fly under my control for the first flights .. that's for sure....

Like everyone else my first and best advice is to get a good, big trainer and an instructor. The bigger it is the easier it is to see when it gets too far away.

If your dead set against that. There are other possibilities that you can pursue.

There have been people in the history of the hobby that have learned to fly RC with P-51 Mustangs or other very difficult to fly planes, just like some guys learned to fly full scale airplanes in a Beach Bonanza or a light twin instead of a Cessna 150. The thing is the odds of pulling it off are very high against actually getting it done.

This summer at my club a guy crashed his trainer about half way through getting his Solo certification and came back the following weekend with a P40 War-hawk ARF. Somebody at the LHS said it landed just like a trainer and sold it to him (very irresponsible). He was adamant that he wanted to use it and he eventually learned to fly. However, He broke that P 40 into pieces several times and finally epoxied the landing gear down, trashed the engine and had to replace it, but he did to learn to fly using that airplane.

My third plane was a SIG "Mid-Star 40" I believe it was easier to fly than my trainer (LT-40), but it may be just that I was a better pilot by the time I got it. I eventually sold it because it was too easy to fly and did not offer enough challenge.

So, all that having been said, you can use other airplanes to learn to fly. My advise is to get a plane that has dihedral built into the wing so it has inherent stability. It won't matter if it is high wing or low wing. A low wing will roll better and perhaps look better if that is what you looking for. You can get a Tiger 60 or a Sig 4* 60, an Easy fly forty or the Sig Mid-Star 40. They are all great airplanes for relatively new pilots. DO NOT GET A FUNFLY!

Just remember, You may be setting yourself up for a lot more frustration than you have to by getting too complex an airplane too early in your flying career.

As RC modelers we want you to stay in the hobby, not just come in for a month or a year and disappear because it was more trouble than it was worth or got too expensive cause you crashed your equipment.

Best of Luck in your decision and remember, get your buddy or local club to help you. You won't regret it.

"Join AMA"

Regards. JJM

Get an instructor FIRST and see what (s)he recommends - both for plane AND radio!

Jerry

Moses912,
No! do not listen to these people! They don't know what they are takling about,heck 2 of them have less thn 60 years building and flying experience,all newbies know that not enough knowledge. probably most of them has on built between 60 and 125 planes,you can't count on that small amount of planes.LUCKLEY you found me to guide you do the path you wanted to hear.Get a Carden or AW 1/2 scale,they are easy to see, 3w or small Volkswagon engine,impress the friends,9z or bigger radio,all those switches to hold on with, go fly at the public park,that way don't have to worry about dumb rules,instructors want you to do things there way, so go by yourself,don't forget to fill out the T.O.C.forms, because after the first flight you're ready.

P.S. please post pictures of flight,thanks.

ROFL

TerrellFlyer:

First of all.. it IS better to by a bigger plane, a bigger engine will be helpfull to drag the larger weight of the plane, after the modifications he is planning to do, he probably is looking to impress his friends.. a big radio will help too, to control the additional servos of the camera.. plus it's not hard to learn the functions of a computer radio.. it's not rocket science....

I for one, met many people here who didn't buy a trainer for their first plane. I'll fly my four star only when I know I can fly it...but before that.. practice on the trainers.. sims.. with instructors.. ONLY THEN.. will i fly my plane..

-eugn

I would recommend a ugly stick 60. It flies true and straight. It goes where you point it. But you will crash it.

But I am now teaching a buddy of mine how to fly and he has been learning on a Extra EZ. Which I will say is an excellent trainer. He was very successful with this plane. But one day he decided to go flying without help and lost control and crashed it. Well after that he got another one along with a Ugly Stick 60. We put both of them together and got both going. He was determined that he could fly the stick 60. I got it up and let him take control and he flew it pretty well. But he did say that it was way more sensitive and more touchy and this made him nervous. To me it just flew better but in the hands of a beginner it can be a handful.

He practiced low passes over and over then tried to land. He could not get it lined up straight and smooth to land no matter how many times he tried. Just the fact it is not a trainer and it flies differently.

So we went back to the trainer again and put some hours on it. So guess what I am saying that yes you may be able to FLY the more advanced plane. But when it comes down to it probably will not have much understanding on the control of it. That is why trainers are important to learn on. They fly much more forgiving and allow you to get accustomed to the characteristics of a RC plane. You need to first build up your skills on how to and not to do things. Meaning how to approach a landing and how not to for example. It is not just a matter of flying around and then landing.

Now if you jumped right into the stick and went to fly and made say a turn and it say stalled to the right when you was 6' from the ground coming at you. Would you know how to recover from this? The plane would be able to recover from this but would the flier be able to? Probably not. now say you already had learned how to fly a trainer inside and out and knew how to react to this. Then yes you could probably save it. Just in a more advance plane they react a lot more quickly and more touchy. In the case of being only 6' from the ground this would not be something you would be wanting to learning in.



But if you insist of of learning in a advanced, cool, fast looking plane. Go for it. Just make sure you take a picture of it before you go flying it.

Thats funny and yet it really isn't. This is good advice, and you better take that picture if you insist on going it alone.

Everybody:

I want to thank everyone for helping me out with their adivce. I'm finding it to be a great help in answering my questions. I want to especially thank TerrellFlyer for his insightful comments, and his brilliant advice.

Thank You
Moses912

Good morning Moses912,which way you go is really up to you,I instruct at two different clubs so I get to use a lot of different planes for free,kind of nice,also have 25 planes in my hangar.Most of the new pilots learn faster and better with a flat bottom trainer,I know we are hoping the trainer will do for the 1st, 2cd and 3rd plane but I think in the process of learning one can try to advance to a plane to high above there skills,in the process of just keeping it flying alot of the fun is missing,and a lot of the learning level and skill is by passed.Over 80% of todays r/c pilots don't know how to use the rudder,lots of pilots are afraid of 15 mph or higher winds,all of this learning should be with a trainer, with the trainer design left in the plane to help the person learn to be the best they can be.I've seen lots of experienced pilots take a trainer and just flat out fly an inexperienced pilot with a 300 or extra,nothing beats stick time and educated thumbs,what ever you do have fun,and welcome.

The thing a lot of newbies don't realize is that when you're flying a plane, there is no such thing as "stop".

If you're playing with an R/C car for example, and you start heading for a wall, you can stop. You can't stop in the air. You can't go in reverse. If you get in trouble, you either must have the knowledge and experience to get out of it, or crash your beautiful airplane.

MinnFlyer,TerrellFlyer

why do you guys even bother? I've read many posts were you guys attempt to give a new comer sound advice aimed at helping them suceed in this hobby only to have one or more (usually but not allways) other less experienced people provide exaclty the opposite advice.

This board is a wonderfull resource IF you have some idea of whose advice to take and whose to ignore.

With all the experience you each seem to posses doesn't it become frustrating to you when someone who hasn't even flown yet disagrees with you?

Just courious since I've noticed that a lot of beginners answer other beginners questions in a manner that I think sometimes may mislead the owner of the question into thinking they are getting advice that is based on lots of experience.

No flame intended just courious. When I'm at the field its real easy to tell who knows what they are talking about and who does not. Here its a little harder and usually requires (at least for me) to read several posts from the same individual to get a feel for their experience level.

Hi Crashem,
thanks for the kind words,yes there is many times I've deleted an answer or response because I said what I REALLY WANTED TO SAY. The thing I hate to see is false information,especially hear say about anything,if I haven't used a product,method,or plane then I don't give an answer.When someone disagrees with me ,I don't get up set because sometimes I make mistakes,when I do I hope someone catches them,but some of the replies are so far in left field that I wonder how some people sleep at night.I enjoy r/c very much,so if my few answers here helps someone recieve a few of the many pleasures I've recieved, then I'll just grit my teeth,enjoy MinnFlyers drawings and grin,thanks again.

Ditto. Look at the number of posts that Terrell and I have, and look at the number of posts the ebaygin and Moses have.

I think if Terrell and I were handing out that much bad info, we would have been banned from RCU long ago.

People ask for advice, I try to give them some from the vast pool that I have acquired in over 40 years of flying. If they don't want to listen to it, that is their prerogative. They may be successful with out it, I can't say they won't. All I can say is that the odds are highly against them. If they succeed, good for them. If they don't... Well, I hate to blow my own horn but... BEEP BEEP!