I was thinking, since we seem to be answering the same questions with "don't fly by yourself" 'find a club" "get an instructor" over and over again, maybe this forum should have a sticky written by RCKen (or someone) at the top that says "Beginner's Start here!" Wouldn't that help give newbs all the info they need in one spot? Then they could ask questions based on that info!

TheParrot,
It's funny that you mention that. There is a project in the works to put together just what you mentioned. Minnflyer, Bubbagates, myself and a few others will be doing a lot of the work in putting this together. The first step should be out this week. We are going to put out a questionnaire to find out everything that beginners want to see/hear/know about. Then we plan on figuring out the best way to put that info out (simple text, FAQ format, pictures in a how-to, or a video). Once that is done we'll split up the chores and get to producing content.

So I guess what I need everybody to do is start jotting down notes for when I put out the first poll. We want to know all the things that you beginners, and even the "ole folks" too, want to know as you come into this hobby. Don't worry about it being silly, because remember that the stupid question is the one that doesn't get asked. Start putting them down and I should get the poll out in the next day or so.

Thanks

Ken

You must be a Vulcan. This is some really logical thinking. Please, do a mind-meld with R/CKen.

Now that is a scary thought.

Ken

Yah I'd really love to have all of RCKen's knowledge, but on the other hand then I'd start building pink and purple airplanes and who knows what else! So I think the mind meld is out.

Hey Ken that reminds me, this came with a glider kit I bought, seems like a really good starting point. Check it out.

http://www.djaerotech.com/dj_download/rkbegin.html

I seem to have mis-placed the intermediates forum. Has anyone seen it?

Parrot, your question is most certainly logical. However, the person who is seeking the information needs merely to look, do a search and uncover the tons of (redundant) information to answer the question. Methinks very often the person posing the proposition of flying by oneself already has the information but feels for whatever reasons that his is a "special" case. It is the other mortals who need the benefit of an instructor. That and the need or desire for penpals (the topic always generates a boat load of response).

So, if there is any benefit to making a "sticky" on this topic, it would be to save the time and effort of those who regularly respond to the subject. Tell the person to review the sticky with all its pertinant information. And of course, the response will be along the lines of..."well I read all that, but my situation is different because......"

Hey, it can't hurt, but don't expect it to make any real difference. Just my opinion.[8D]

Jim,
I disagree with you on this one. Myself, Minnflyer, and others have put a lot of thought and discussion into this subject before we decided to do it. If we didn't think it was worthwhile, trust me, we wouldn't be doing it. Yes, there are those out there that aren't going to listen to anything they read because they are "a special case". But those types aren't going to listen no matter what form the info is given in. A lot of times beginners in this hobby, and here on RCU, don't even know that there is a search function that they can use. And even when they do know about it the search and be a bit overwhelming. I just did a couple of quick searches and here is what I found. Searching on the word "training" returned over 500 results, "nexstar" over 500 results, "instructor" over 500 results, "PTS" returned 284 results, and even a search on the the word "thingy" (you would be surprised how many new people use that word) returned over 500 results. In my mind I thing it puts a new person off when they ask a question and somebody snaps back "that's already been answered, go do a search on it!" New people in this hobby are a little bit of a special case. A lot of times they are a bit overwhelmed by the whole hobby, and some do feel out of place asking for help. I actually trained a CEO of a multi-million dollar corporation and he gave me some great insights on this issue. He told me that it was very odd for him to be in the position of being told what to do, so he had some adjustments to do (actually, he turned out to be one of my better students). But the same thing applies to all new people. The Beginner's forum is a bit different from other forums on RCU in the amount of "crap" that we allow in here. Things that would be allowed in other forums aren't in here just because of the very nature of this forum. This forum can very well be a beginner's first look at the hobby, so we try to make that a good experience. We don't want them turned off of the hobby because they were treated badly in here. Sometimes it can take a beginner a lot of time to get up the courage to actually post a question in the forum, and we aren't going to have somebody slam them when they finally to ask. Also along those lines, as people are working up the nerve to ask they can sit back and read the FAQ at their leisure.

Another issue about the FAQ is that a lot of times a new person doesn't even know what questions that they should be asking. With a FAQ they can read through it and find information that they may have never thought of. We also want the FAQ to be a way of getting the correct answer. When a question is asked here in here in the forum the thread can go on for pages, and can sometimes have many different answers with a lot of those being just plain incorrect. With the FAQ they will get the right answer quickly. Lastly, since we will be answering specific questions we will make sure we can present all the material we can to answer the questions fully. This can be simple text, or text with pictures of the issue, or links to other sources, and lastly we will probably shoot quite a bit of video to go along with the text.

Ken

Well said. Thanks.

A video of you, Bill, & Minn, all at the same time? Now there's a sure-fire way to scare away all the beginners![&:] After all it is Wed so Minn's fair game, you & Bill shouldn't have been in the back seat of his car today.[sm=lol.gif]

Wait, won't Gravity reverse and Time stand still? Won't Light become dark and the laws of physics cease to exist if all of them are together at one time? I would rather be safe than sorry.

Whew that was close.

I'm gonna get em all together at the Reno Air Races. And get the local club to let us participate in they're fun fly portion of the event.[sm=idea.gif]

Hopefully they'll keep the cameras aimed toward the planes.

Or at least forget to take off the lens caps.[sm=lol.gif]

[X(]

We can only hope!!!!!

Ken

ken, im looking forward to seeing this i think its great,i know i have just started and i have spent hours on here doing searches,but i was like a sponge and wanted to take in as much as i could.but im sure there are things i forget and to have a single place to reread everything from time to time would work for us new guys.one think maybe some links to commonly asked questions

I think this will be very helpful. I did a short one last year for one of the boat forums. It covered a few basic questions, such as prop sharpening and balancing, that many people seemed to ask. As I was doing it I found I really didn't even need to write much. In many cases, the information was already online, it was just a matter of sorting through what was there and then posting the links that provided the best information.

I'm glad my idea has inspired and motivated everyone!

Looking to crash bigger/faster planes? Didn't you know that you need to crash 10 beginner planes before you can advance to intermediate? You still have 4 to go by last tally.

Well, what do you expect on short notice!

Uhh Uhh Uhh, never mind.

And BTW, we DID used to have a bunch of Stickies at the tops of several forums, but there got to be so many that the other notices were getting overlooked and in some cases they were filling up the first page of the forum.

As Ken said, this is something we've been working on with Bubba. Chuck as also agreed to pitch in. Now we just have to convince Chuck to join our "Summit Meeting" in Toledo this year to go over the fine details

Man, news travels quickly!