Hello everybody,

I have always wanted to get into R/C planes but never gathered the courage to go out and buy one. I finally bought the P-51 PTS and now I am waiting for it to get shipped. Anyway, my question is, Would it be safe to go out and fly on my own? I plan on practicing on the SIM that comes with the kit a couple hours. Will this be enough practice for me to go out and fly my plane? I keep reading about new fliers piggybacking their controllers to a more experienced flier. Is this absolutely necessary for a newbie with 0 flying time??? Any input would be great. Thanks in advance.

Goto your local club and find yourself an instructor who has plenty of experience, atleast this way your first flight won't be your last.


Happy Flying

Paul

G'day Mate, I will go out on a limb here & say, If you fly it on your own, you will crash. PLEASE get help, I am an instructor & most new guys have a few problems just setting up their planes, let alone flying them on their own. So go to a club near you & get help, hopefully there is a club nearby & you won't regret getting help, it could save you a LOT of money in the long run.

Good Flyin Mate,
Allan.

ditto, if you don't want to get to be on first name basis with your local hobby shop or the people where you bought your PTS i strongly suggest you find a competent instructor.

keep us informed of how you're doing.

FlyinStang,

As everyone will mention, get an instructor. The simulators are good for learning the basics, but there is a lot more to owning and flying a plane. If you search RCU you will find many new flyers who ask the same question (I did!) and many do not feel they need the training. For me, I was a flight instructor so I had the confidence in my abilities. I knew about the physics of flight, have flown many simulators, etc. Well, the plane was perfect, but there was a little something that I did not know about R/C planes that got the best of me, so I crashed. Thinking it was a fluke, I repaired my trainer and tried again with the same result. So, I sucked up my pride, found a local club, inquired about training, and learned a lot! What is funny is that I had a lot of training before I ever took to the air. You'll find that a good instructor will take their time with you before you take off. Mine thoroughly checked out the plane, and we made some adjustments on the ground. He then explained the club and field rules, and went over safety procedures. It was only then that we moved to the pits. He then took the time to show me proper fueling techniques, how to start the engine, how to do a range check, then how to tune the engine. He explained how the buddy box worked, how to announce your intentions to make sure that others are aware of your presence, and we then took to the air.
Sorry if this is lengthy, but it is extremely important that you get an instructor. Not only for your wallet, but for the safety of others. The one thing that I have learned from this forum is that without any instruction, "YOU WILL CRASH". It's just a bet as to how long it will take.

I wish you luck.

One word... NO!!!!

Look at it this way:

You spent about $400.

You chance of success without an instructor is about 5%

Are you willing to bet $400 on a 20 to 1 chance that you'll destroy it?

No, No, NO.
Most of what I am going to say is not from personal experience but some is. and of course everone is different, some can fly fine with very little to no training at all but MOST need a good instructor.
For starters you chose a trainer that is among the more difficult to learn on (based on higher landing, takoff and airspeed in general) it also has arguably the worst SIM you can get. Nothing at all like the real thing.
2 hours on the sim and fly? Not a chance. I would say, AT LEAST 20 hours on a GOOD sim to even attempt to fly one of the easier trainers.
Don't get me wrong, you can learn to fly with that airplane with almost 100% success IF you get an instructor. If you go it alone your chances are very slim.

Please get experienced help.

If you do not know where a flying club is located, go to this page:
http://www.ama-dist-8.org/Clubs/Locator.php
Put in a number of miles (maybe 25) and your zip code and "Submit Query"

The info in the AMA database is often out of date, so, don't just send an email and wait for a reply. If there is a phone number listed, try it. Also check web sites if listed.

Get an instructor. Your planes expiration date will increase logarithmically with an instructor.

I've been instructing this spring and one thing that I've noticed is more and more guys that have some time on the sim and they show up thinking they can probably fly real well. I noticed that they can fly better than if they hadn't flown on the sim at all but they still have a ways to go before they can fly well enough on their own. Go to a flight field and get an instructor. It saves your plane and possibly getting someone hurt. Also too the guys that show up that have "sim time" in usually don't know how their plane is supposed to run, how to make sure it is set up right, or even stuff they need for their field box. You pick up all kinds of expertise at a flight field with people around to point you in the right direction. When you start out trying to fly in some vacant field you're just re-inventing the wheel.

A little SIM time and a dozen flights with a good instructor and your plane will live to fly another day.....

Dave
AMA 847123

If you would have chosen an easier more forgiving aircraft I would have said it was completely possible to learn yourself.

1. A: No! 2. A:No! 3. A:Yes Since you have all ready jumped in and bought a plane, Keep it in one piece while you learn by joining an RC club and get proper training on a buddy box! 2 minutes on the box will prove to you that your plane would not have lasted more than a few seconds if you tried it on your own. [8D]

Um...

Troll?

This just doesn't seem like a first post to me....

Disregard the uninformed posts about the P-51 being a bad "trainer", it's an EXCELLENT first plane. You made a good choice. Get rid of the speed brakes, replace the prop and read the PTS P-51 thread.

I soloed with it on my first time out, never having done this before... four flights three landings, loops, inverted, etc, one morning, first time.


But DO heed the good advice on starting off with an instructor. Not only is this usually required, preserves your investment and an all around good idea... but the instructors can help you make sure that your plane is set up properly, that it's properly C.G.'d, and that it is fully ready to fly.

That little bit of help alone is priceless, as is getting used to the PTS during the first few flights.