Ok so I posted in the clubhouse section a little over a month ago looking for some help but just now got around to moving my question over here. Long story short I inherited a couple of RC planes and would like to learn to fly them. I don't have any of the controllers for them but I live near a flying field (the trouble is catching someone while they are there) Anyway here are some pics of the planes I have.






I don't know anything about these planes...I live in Scott Ar on the old river lake. The flying field is across the lake from my house and down a bit so I can't see them flying unless I'm on the lake fishing (the lake is 5 miles long)

Unfortunately, while those are two nice planes you got there, neither are for beginners. I would suggest contacting that club. You should be able to get their info from the AMA website's club locator. Talk with them about instruction most clubs will teach you to fly for free only need to join AMA & the club. You'll want to get a Trainer to learn on & work your way up to those planes.

I was afraid of that. I had about 30 to choose from when I got these two. My wifes step-dad died and he and I were friends. He told his wife (my mother in-law) to let me pick whatever I wanted when he died. He had cancer and knew he wasn't going to be around very long. I thought for sure I picked a fairly simple plane with the G-200 but I didn't know anything about them at the time. He had 3 planes like the yellow one, an Aeroshell, a fan inducted blue angel jet, several compliacted Bi-planes and some other single winged planes similar to the yellow one but not quite exactly like it. The G-200 was the closest to a beginner looking plane he had. I wish I had gotten to learn to fly with him but I never did. I'm not sure how many planes my mother in-law has left but I know she has some boats (he gave me a boat before he died but I don't know anything about that either)

The P-51 is intense. Looks to even have a functioning variable prop unless it's just a static display prop. AS said get with that club and get a trainer. The cost of a trainer would be a fraction that of the P-51 and you'll be successful in learning to fly with a trainer and an instructor. [link=http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXCXF4**&P=0]trainer[/link]

With a model as complex as that model I'd say go right for a high end radio. Like a Futaba [link=http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXHMD2**&P=0]9CAP[/link]
or JR [link=http://www.horizonhobby.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=JRP9250**]9303[/link]

You can get a flight pack and control all your models on one Tx

I really like the P-51 too! It's HUGE, I can't move it alone. The only info I remember hearing before Tom passed was that it had a huge motor in it that was identical to another P-51 he had streamlined for air drags (this is what he told me) he said the streamlined one would do 250MPH and the yellow one I got would do 220MPH. He dragged them and was a serious flyer for many years. He owned a shop in NY for many years then moved down here about 13 years ago. He raced boats too and claimed to have accumulated about $30,000 in winnings from racing over the years. I don't know how much of that is true but he certainly had the goods to deliver for sure. I wish I had went ahead and invested some money and bought his trailer (looked like a camper) and several of his planes. His wife didn't know what she had and sold his Aeroshell for $200 and the trailer for $500. Ended up making about $15,000 off his plane collection since none of his children wanted anything from it.

He has a lot of valuable stuff that needs to be included in the insurance of her house too. He has at least 100,000 baseball cards in complete years in order of number. He was 72 when he passed and had ran a hobby/card/comic shop since the 60's so you can imagine what might be in his collection. He also had a plaque with a real ticket stub from the titanic complete with an original newspaper clipping of the sinking.

I'm very sorry to hear of your loss. It sounds like your father-in-law was a very serious modeler. The high end stuff like this is very expensive. Finding a buyer that has the money and the skill can be tricky. Often Ebay can connect you with a buyer. Many of us regularly browse Ebay and recognize the good stuff when we see it. Your mother-in law may have done better finacially. Sometimes thats just not the priority.
Those heavy warbird racers do reach the speeds that you mentioned. And speed cost money. So I suspect the mustang is worth some bucks to the right person.

As for your situation. You could prabably learn to play Clair D' Lune on a concert grand piano as easily as attaining the skill level required to fly that Mustang. Just forget about it, ( at least for now ).

You will have the best chance of catching someone at the club field on the weekends. Trainers are cheap and you don't even need to build if you are not inclined to. Radios are about 200 . Look at Tower Hobbies website for prices. Join the AMA , ( Academy of Model Aeronautics ). Most clubs require that for the insurance, its 58 bucks and you can join on line.

Also check out the Real Flight simulators for sale on the Tower Hobbies site. There are other brands of simulators available also.

If you had a trainer, in hand right now, and went to the filed, it will probably take you a couple of months until you could fly it un-assisted. And then you gradually move up with faster and more responsive airpalnes.

You have come to the right place to get on-line information and help. There is someone here that knows something about just about everything.

This isn't the kind of hobby that a person does "now and then". To attain and then maintain a skill level neccessary to operate advanced models requires that you fly regularly. So, this is almost a lifestlye and one that often ends relationships. You might discuss this with your wife first. She may have an adverse reaction to your absence on weekends.

thatMustang is sweet you might be able to use the motor from the G-200 for a trainer looks like it has a reciever in it . the white wire is connected to the reciever, its the antenna, as well as the servos from that plane. a basic trainer ,no radio no engine is 70 to 100$ called a ARF pretty much built for you some assembly pretty minor though . if you get a compatable transmitter you should be able to reuse alot of the basic parts from the G-200 on a trainer check with the local club they will help you with what parts are useful and the ones you cant reuse. bummer about your father in law he sounded pretty cool sorry for your loss .

ss454,
I just took a look at the AMA website and looked up their listings for clubs in the Little Rock area. There are 4 clubs listed for Little Rock itself. Not knowing the area, I'm not sure how many others might be listed that would show up "out of town" to the East as you are.

All 4 clubs have phone numbers of guys who're listed because they're happy to help.

You might also look up hobby shops in the area and swing by one or two. They also will be happy to help. It's their livelyhood after all. And they might actually be amenable to swapping that big mustang for something that'd be a lot better trainer. But if I were you, I'd hold off on the swap until I'd made contact with club and had a chance to talk to some of those guys. They'll be better able to advise you about exactly what you have now, in lots better detail and depth.

BTW, was your wife's step-dad active around there? Some of his old flying buddies might be more than happy to help you out. I know I'd be very pleased to help anyone with a connection to buddies of mine who've "left the hobby". More than pleased. And you just might hear a story or two about the old boy that your wife would enjoy.

Darock brings up a good point. If he's been in the area for the last 13 yrs before he passed, someone if not a lot of guys know him & those planes. I be willing to bet he belonged to one or more of the local clubs in his area. He wasn't park flying that Mustang!!

I certainly wouldn't trade it when the engine alone in it is worth more than a new trainer.

In your case the H9 P51 PTS might just be the ticket. We usually reccomend a traditional high wing Trainer to most new ppl, but the PTS might just get ya to that Mustang a little quicker. A lot of ppl are starting to come around about this thing as being a viable Trainer. I would still contact the club you want become a part of first, meet the instructors, find out what they are willing to train you on & what kind of radio he uses so there won't be any compatability issues.

Here are a couple of links of a regular high wing trainer & the PTS, these are both RTFs with just minimul assembly. The PTS comes with a JR radio & the Tower comes with the Tower version of a Futaba radio.


http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...I=LXCXF4**&P=0


http://www.hangar-9.com/PTS/


The PTS goes for around $399 at most Hobby shops. Good luck in your new Hobby/Addiction

Hi!
As you already have heard none of the airplanes are for a beginner.
The yellow one is a P-51 D ...looks to be an old Byron mustang... with the large, near scale size 4-blade nylon prop, with prop drive (either powered with a 10-15cc glow engine or with the Quadra 40cc gas engine). It's not particularly fast ...will do 80-100mph at most (flown one like yours 20 years ago) but it sure looks good in the air.
You don't need any top of the line radio, just get a good brand radio like JR and Futaba.

Regards!
Jan K
Sweden

If you want to get a good trainer to start, look at the Alpha from H-9. It even come with a flight sym for your home computer. Dennis

From what I understand both these planes are ready to fly minus the controller. Would I be able to trade the G-200 for a suitable trainer? I'll call my mother in-law and ask what clubs he was in around here. He flew at the field near my house but I didn't find out until he was too sick to fly anymore. Another thing I remember him saying about the P-51 is that it had a recipricator? I don't have any idea what that is but he said it turned the prop many more times than the motor so I assume it was a sort of gearing device??? I'm going to call up the wife (I work nights) and get her to call her mother and give me some info on his simulator programs. He was teaching his grandson to fly helicopters (she didn't sell them BTW) off one of the programs as well as planes so I might see about learning to fly from the sims.

I'll definately keep you guys informed about this since I want to learn to fly so I can teach my dad. He's always loved watching people fly RCs and that is his shop they are stored in. I'm 26 BTW and my dad is 55 so we have some time to learn. I also think the mother in-law has some controllers left. How do I go about finding out if the ones she has will work?

pull down the mustang and remove the center wing. look for a little box that all the servo wires go to. That's the receiver. You'll be able to find a brand name and a frequency or channel number on it. Match that channel number up to one of the Tx's The Tx's channel number should be on the back of the controler somewere. IF it matches then more than liley it's the Tx. course even faster just turn on the mustange and the Tx. If the servos respond it's it. Wouldn't recommend that though becuase if it's a computer radio and he had multiple models on which as avid a modeler as he was he propably did and it set to the wrong model it could bind the retract and flap servos

I don't think we're on the same page here. I looked up Byron P-51 D in google and found some neat planes but they're not nearly as big as this thing. My wife talked to her mother a little while ago and she said it is supposed to be a 1/4 scale plane. Also he flew with the FARM club in Little Rock but she didn't suggest I talk to any of them because several of them tried to get some of his planes after he died and were not very friendly. One of his flying buddies that WAS helpful took two of his P-51s to a show in Texas and sold them for $750 each for her. I found a picture at another place from a FARM fly-in with a few pictures of his planes (not the ones I have) One is another P-51 and the others are a couple of his Aeroshell planes.

When I say this plane is BIG I'm talking http://pprcc.portage.net/pics/kk/KenKandP51.jpg THIS big.

Oh and just for reference that is a 4 foot shop light hanging there and it's barely longer than the wings (like 6-8") wihtout the other half of the wings added. The tips of the wings for the P-51 can be seen above the G-200. Each tip of the P-51 is as large as the entire wing of the G-200.

I'm sure you could probably swing something in the way of a trade on the G200 for some type of Trainer but personally I believe you'll come up with the short end of the stick in that deal. If it was me I would hang on to both of them. That's a neat little plane & once you learn to fly it will not be too long before you want it back. If you can I would just buy a Trainer NIB to learn on. If you don't have the time to build or assemble an ARF you can get a Tower Trainer RTF complete ready to fly in about the time it takes to charge your Tx & Rx batteries you can have what little assembly is left to do done.

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...I=LXCXF4**&P=0

They allways have some discounts going on that will reduce the price, usually enough to cover the shipping cost. This is the least expensive RTF Trainer that I know of. There are nicer ones available too if you want to spend a little more but this a perfectly good Trainer. I have it as well as a NexStar & the Tower is still going strong & flown on a regular basis. Good luck.

Well I aprecated everyone's help on this but after consideration I think I'm going to sell the planes and move on. I don't have the time to learn to fly these or the money to buy anything else. I live on a lake and love to fish and I don't even have time to do that once a month so I doubt I would ever be able to fly either of these. I'll pull both of them down this weekend and take pictures of the engines and everything so you guys could possibly help me place a value on them. Thanks again.

Saying that this hobby will end relationships is a foolish statement. It certainly doesn't have to be that way, and it doesn't have to be that way in order for you to obtain the skill necessary to fly the planes you have inherited. You just have to practice. I wouldn't even consider the P-51 for at least 3 years, if not 4.
Now, on to other stuff. You need to learn to fly, if it's what you want to do. There would be no other better way to honor your wife's step dad than to take up his passion, and eventually keep his planes in the air. However, only consider this if you are serious abou it! If you do in fact get a trainer and a radio and stuff, remember--DO NOT TURN YOUR RADIO ON AT YOUR HOUSE EVER if you live within 5 miles or so of the flying club field. I say this because you mentioned that it was "close." I don't know what close is to you, but if you are within 5 miles, but probably more like 6 or 7, then don't ever turn your radio on, as there is a chance you could unknowingly shoot someone down that is flying at the field!
Other than that, do as suggested and get a trainer and get on the road to learning! Good luck, and that is one AWESOME P-51!!!

Lol, I agree. However if not kept in proper perspective it can cause a strain on relationships. I am very lucky in that I have a great wife that doesn't try to tell me what I can or can't do. She rarely gets upset & has a pretty level head on her shoulders. I still have to check myself sometimes though because even she can be pushed to the limits, resulting in remarks like: " If you're not flying planes, you're building planes, or on the phone talking about planes, or online looking for more planes, or on RCU typing about planes, planes, planes, planes.... When are you going to spend some time with me??? "[sm=drowning.gif]