hey all
im interested in this hobby
never ever flew rc planes b4 nvr been near them
what do u recomend??
i dont like to start small (meaning trainer)
i want to go strait to like a 30% extra or a giant super chipmunk
towerhobbies has a good choice of everythin
since u all say to start with trainers, id choose between
pts p-51 (i like the stuff it has)
nexstar trainer (the one with the thing when u let go of the controls and it levels out by itself)
and any others??
my lhs has this trainer new in box for $315 (its similar to a nextstar, i think its a hangar 9 not sure)
thanks

Before you spend a single penny on any equipment seek out
the nearest club and get to know one of their flight instructors.

This will save you immeasurable time and money and aggravation.
Believe me. Been there...done that.

Mike Hammer

What he said! You have to start with a trainer, if you want to have any type of success. Like all sports or everything in life, you have to walk before you can run.

Listen to what XTOL says and then leave your EGO at home, all it's going to do for you is break airplanes and cost you money.

A word to the WISE is SUFFICIENT !!!! ENJOY !!!! RED

All three of the trainers you mentioned will be just fine as long as you have an instructor. GET AN INSTRUCTOR BEFORE YOU BUY ANYTHING. Your instructor will help you pick a radio, one that is compatible with his/hers for buddy-boxing. OR ... you can do what I did and buy your own buddy-box, (they're cheap).

An instructor will also help you in determining what ground-equipment you need. For instance, my field has lots of tables and plane restraints...no need to buy a bunch of stuff like that. All you really need is a glow driver, some fuel, a fuel pump and a chicken-stick. The rest, and I have bought it all, is mostly for convenience. (extra batteries, charger, field-box, tools, electric starter, power panel, 12 V battery, cappuccino machine etc...you get the idea.

I really like SIG and Hangar-9 they just make good stuff. (The PTS is a H-9, I believe).

I love saying this part:

Welcome to the end of 'free time' and 'disposable income' as you now know them.

Have fun!!

(WOW those guys posted fast)...listen to them...

You may not like the trainers, but their built that way for a reason - to give you a nice stable platform that gives you time to learn how to react to the plane. This past weekend, I met a new flier. He got my name from our local hobby shop which is providing a brochure to people buying airplanes. He said it was much more of a hassle than he'd expected. When I got to his house (a 150 acre farm), he had the plane out on the back of his truck. As I started looking things over, he began telling me that his buddy had been so excited about this plane (a Nextstar 46 Trainer) that they put it together immediately and tried to fly it. Apparently they didn't bother reading most of the instruction manual that came with it. The elevator could barely be brought down to level with the stabilizer with full trim, the ailerons were not even and equal. As I continued to look it over, I saw the throttle stop screw was bent (obviously had nosed into the dirt). It was after this attempt they called me.

Now I'm not knocking him. He's a nice guy, and is very eager to learn. Like all new flyers the prospect of getting the plane out of the box and taking off seems so simple. Good flyers make it look easy. And it will be - eventually.

After his first lesson last Saturday, he was convinced that having an instructor was the right way to go. He'd spent several hours on the simulator, and was doing OK maintaining altitude and heading, but he was making most of the first time flyer mistakes - over controlling, holding ailerons, waiting for the plane to self correct out of the turn (a mistake that's reinforced by the AFS system). Next time out, we'll start working our way down to shoot some approaches. I expect in a few more weeks, he'll be ready to fly solo. But then we'll take off the speed brakes and wing droops, and see how it goes from there!

Recommended trainers? They're all pretty good. I've seen the best results with the Hanger 9 Alpha trainer. I flew a new Tower Hobbies trainer on Saturday, and it flew very nicely. The Nexstar is also good, but I recommend getting rid of the AFS. The owner of the Tower Hobbies trainer said he liked it better than his Nexstar - he didn't have to fight it as much. I think the Tower Hobbies trainer is lighter and a little more responsive. Our club just purchased a new Megatech Nitro 46 trainer, which I have yet to fly, but came highly recommended by other club members.

There have been several good reviews on here of the PTS P-51. I've never tried it.

Good Luck!
Brad

You seem to be fishing for something…

You posted “Newb needs help on a new rtf!” on 12/10/2005 and got a few replies
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_36...tm.htm#3640012
You posted “Pitts P-12 from towerhobbies?” on 12/16/2005 which had to be shut down by the moderators.
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_36...tm.htm#3659669
You posted “Nexstar Trainer or P-51 PTS?” on 12/17/2005 and got 22 replies.
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_36...tm.htm#3663139

Maybe a troll?

Those were my thoughts too

Ken

Also this one on 12/14/2005:

Video of P-51 PTS Trainer?
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_36...tm.htm#3654986

"You seem to be fishing for something… " - I noticed the same thing. Normally I don't check prior posts, but this time I did because something didn’t feel right when I read the original post.

For any beginner reading this thread, if your goal is to fly giant scale, be it a 30% extra, or a super chipmunk, or if your goal is to fly jets, or scale warbirds, or whatever… You must learn to crawl before you can climb the mountain. Ask any giant scale hot shot pilot, or jet jockey, and they will all tell you they started with a trainer and took many small steps with intermediate planes to get to where they are now.

Flying takes commitment, practice and help. But don’t let this discourage you. You will have a lot of fun during the learning process.

Learning to flying is not like RC cars/trucks/buggies. Most folk from the RC car community understand this. I was just out flying a park flier yesterday near a RC dirt track. One of the better RC car guys jokingly offered to trade controls… he of course knew what the results would be. With the RC land vehicles, about anyone can handle a low end $100 vehicle, or the tricked out $1,000 vehicle. Even someone who has never driven a RC car can pick up the controls and drive it around. It doesn’t work that way with the planes.

There is a lot of very good advice on this forum. 99% of the advice is sound, and after a bit of reading you can easily tell which posters are the experienced pilots. While none of us are right 100% of the time, anything from piper_chuck, bubbagates, RCKen Bruce88123, britbrat and the like can be taken as good advice. Mayhem, if you have a problem with the advice, then maybe flying isn’t for you.

Cheers.