Well, I'm taking it out again at lunch today. 2nd flight. I hope to make it more than 15 seconds. Any advice? LOL! I know, I know, you're all thinking "don't do it!". But hey, the first guy that ever built one of these didn't have an instructor, right? Wish me luck.

Good luck! What are you flying? Have you had any instruction? Is this your 2nd flight since your instructor had you solo or has all of your flights been solo?

See here

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=4438969

I take it you not reading your own threads. Yes were all saying don't it. go into your forum setting and set the thread your posting into auto email. that way you know when someone replies

This may be a troll. New member, 2 posts.

#1. I tried and crashed in 15 seconds; any suggestions?

#2. Here I go again; wish me luck........

The only thing he is ever going to respond to is someone that tells him he can do it and not crash in less than one minute. We could all list the things he needs to know before he takes off but that's not gonna work either

I do beleive you're right Bill. Just looking for someone to co-sign it!

No, no, not a Troll. Honestly. Yeah, I know you guys have been giving advice and I know I should be listening to it, but the truth is that I bought a beater plane and I just want to get going. Probably, you're all thinking I'm a fool, and that's okay because with regard to this I probably am. I see it like this: If I were building a car, or an actual airplane, I'd need to make sure I were 100% up to snuff with regard to the condition of my vehicle, my construction techniques, and my operating skills. But, this isn't that. Sure, it's much more advanced than most, if not all, people should begin with, but it's what I have and it's what I'm going to learn with. Yes, I agree, I should be with an instructor, but here's exactly what happened today..... A guy I work with knew I'd be trying again today, and so asked his g-friend's father to stop by and help me out (unbeknownst to me). Anyhow, he gets here early flies his plane, and does a great job. Well, suddenly, I'm not feeling so hot about flying mine. I know I'm no good, and I know I'm probably going to crash, but I don't want to be told what to do, or not to do, only to be told "you should have listened to me". I decided to get mine out anyway, and immediately, the guy starts telling me HOW I should fuel it, and what a crappy radio I have. He starts grabbing my stuff, and going through my field box. By the time he was finished with me, I didn't want to fly anymore today. He literally sucked the fun right out of it. I know it's a pretty exacting science. I know everything has to be just right. But for now, I just want to learn it for myself, and enjoy it along the way. Trial and error is part of the process, no? I learn better by doing. As I get along, I fully expect that I'll be asking more and more questions. But at this point, as I mentioned in my original post, I have so many questions that I don't know where to begin. Anyhow, it's supposed to be fun. And, if I get my fun, at least for now, out of making mistakes, laughing about them, and then repairing them, then I'd hope you guys would be happy that I'm enjoying myself. But, if it is going to be taken so very, very seriously, just let me know, and I won't come back, it's all good. Finally, when asking for advice, I'm really expecting to hear something funny in response. "Be sure and get with an instructor" is good, sound advice. "Be sure to unplug from the instructor immediately before takeoff" is funny. "Three-quarters throttle into the wind" is right (maybe). "WOT full rudder left" is clearly sarcastic.

I'm not taking any of this personally, and I hope none of you are either. I'm not here to make a mockery of a sport that many of you love so much. I'm just getting started, and I want it to be fun. One day, assuming I learn well, and take it seriously, I'll come to love the sport. Right now, it's just fun.

You sound like if you do not hear exactly what you want, then you will go your own way. In anything in life, that will not work...I'm outta here, good luck

I will pull no punches with you.
You will only get serious advice here. Why? Because if not done safely these airplanes can be very dangerous and can cause serious injury or even death.
There is nothing to joke around with here.
Do me a favor and make sure you are in the middle of nowhere and by yourself when you do this so that no one else can get hurt.
You want something funny as a reply here it is:
Take a garbage bag with you to haul the pieces home

You want funny advice OK.
Line up the plane on the runway and set in fuul "up" trim.
Give it WOT as you call it.
Set the transmitter on the ground.
Stand back and laugh.
Oh yeah- carry a trash can lid to use as a shield in case it attacks you.

It will probably last longer than if you were trying to fly it. [:'(]

One last thing - nothing above is to be taken seriously except the last line.

you got two major problems with want you want to do.

One there are a bunch of clubs in your area, meaning your going to shoot someone down without you knowing about it.

two you have no idea what your doing and these thing can kill people in the wrong hands

the instructor is there for your safety, the publics safety and your equipments integrity, do the trial and error thing on your second and third plane, but your ego supersedes your intelligence so you can't be helped

the guy helping you was doing that. helping. He's making sure your stuff is legal and in good working order. There is allot to know, and there is the right and wrong way to fuel it, to start it, to tune, to check it, to range check it, make sure the throws are correct and in the right direction, that the right input is to the right surface and then everything is at lease tight enough to survive the day. If you have a problem with that then there is no helping you. be sure to bring the garbage bag.

If you want to do it by yourself that is fine. But take this into account first. From what you have said in your post you sound like you are at a regular flying field. So let's think about one possible situation here. You take off your plane that you admit that you don't know how to fly and you crash it into somebody Else's property. Now they are upset and they take legal action against the club that owns the field, and in the long run they get the flying field shut down (don't say it won't happen because it does happen all the time all around the country). I bet you're gonna be real popular with all the rest of the club members aren't you?

Another possibility. You take off your plane and you hit somebody with it. Guess what?? You are now liable for all of their medical bills and will more than likely be seeing a huge lawsuit against you. Several recent lawsuits over injuries caused by a person getting hit by an RC plane have settled out at well over a million dollars. Got a spare million laying around that you can spare? A am assuming that you don't have an AMA membership yet, but even if you did have AMA membership their insurance wouldn't cover you because you didn't follow the AMA 2006 Safety Code.

Since you made the choice to fly without any instruction or help you can forget about the AMA bailing your tail out of a lawsuit.

So now you've gotten a flying field closed down, you have injured or killed somebody that you hit, and you are a million or so in debt all because you knew better than everybody else and were "going to figure it out on your own!!" Was it worth it? You wanted fun right?? Was if fun ruining somebody's life just because you thought that you knew better than others did??? Sounds like fun to me, almost as fun as having my toes smashed with a hammer.

Ok, let's step back for a second and look at the situation here. You're starting to think that everybody is giving you a hard time about this. Yes, that is true, they are. Why?? You have to realize that a lot of the people here in this forum are veteran instructor that have been teaching students for years and years. I myself have been teaching students for about 6 years now and I can't even begin to count how many people that I've taught. The point that I'm getting to is that all of us have seen plenty of people like you come along. You think you know more than everybody else and you can do it on your own, you don't need any of us to teach you to fly. People like that usually try several times to fly until their plane is destroyed beyond repair, and then they move on to the next expensive hobby. The problem with this is what I have said above, these planes are DANGEROUS. They can, and have, killed people. I know of people that have been paralyzed for life because of being hit by a plane.

So with all of that said, here is my words of advice. If you really really really want to learn this by yourself. Go find a field that has absolutely nobody else around for at least 10 miles and try to fly it by yourself. But if there is anybody within that 10 miles you risk either damaging property, hurting or killing somebody, or shooting down somebody elses plane because you didn't know about frequency control (oh yeah, that is something else the instructor will teach you about too.) Otherwise I would recommend that you find an instructor, swallow your pride, be quiet, and learn to fly and RC plane.

This may sound like I am being a bit harsh, especially coming from a moderator, but I am trying to get your attention. This is a serious matter and you need to take it seriously. Now as a moderator my first thoughts were to lock down this thread, but I've changed my mind and I'm going to leave it open for a bit longer. Why?? Because I really am interested in your reply to all of us. But know this, I won't let you continue to post here only to ignore the answers you get. RCU is a fantastic place for the RC community, and the Beginner's Forum is one of THE best places on the internet for beginner's to get help. But it's not for somebody to come in here and ask questions only to ignore the answers given and then tell everybody you can do it yourself. That is just a waste of space and it hurts the people that really are looking for help. So if you continue doing that I will remove any threads of like that. But if you would like the take this a bit more serious then I welcome you to RCU and the RC community. It's a great place full of great people.

Ken

I hate it when people try put words in my mouth. Never, not once, did I say that I knew better than anyone else, and I never said I knew what I was doing. You think this is about my ego? Give me a break. It isn't about wanting to go my own way, it isn't about not being able listen to anything other than what I want to hear. Geez, guys, I just want to have a little fun. Let me ask you this: Have any of you ever gotten behind the wheel of a car without doing a complete inspection beforehand? And what about you motorcyclists? None of you have ever ridden without giving your bike a complete and thorough pre-ride inspection? I thought so. None of you do wheelies? None of you do burnouts or travel at EXCESSIVE speeds? I thought so. Now, before you say you took lessons before you ever got on a bike, or behind the wheel, I'm sure you did. But, a car or a bike in the wrong hands can cause far more damage than an R/C plane can. Not that such a plane can't cause damage, but let's put it into a little perspective. I'm in a half-square mile field a quarter mile from work. If that isn't taking reasonable precaution, I don't know what is. But, that said, I fully understand that these, like anything else can be dangerous. I'm not stupid. My plane might not be in the condition that all the experts would like, and I'm not getting the instruction that you all think I should be getting. But, I'm not performing brain surgery, nor am I attempting to fly an actual plane. I'm not saying this is easy, but I'm saying the risk of serious damage/injury while attempting to fly an R/C plane in an open field is quite a bit lower than the risk of either of those two things.

Come to think of it, nobody has even asked what kind of plane I have. Nice to be judged so harshly by people that don't have all the facts.

Finally, it occurred to me that I've never been called a Troll. I've been called "Hey you in the bushes!" plenty of times, but never a Troll.

Regards,

Terry

You already told us what kind of plane you have.
"I bought a complete Eagle 2 w/radio/engine and a partially assembled kit."
We're not stupid either.

"Have any of you ever gotten behind the wheel of a car without doing a omplete inspection beforehand? And what about you motorcyclists? None of you have ever ridden without giving your bike a complete and thorough pre-ride inspection? I thought so. None of you do wheelies?"

And we also don't look down the barrels of guns and pull the triggers to see if they're loaded either. We still know they are dangerous.

Listen - what a useless thought - You've already decided what you plan to do. WWhy are you wasting our time with your questions/statements? You're going to do whatever pleases you and to heck with the possible consequences.

I'm done - buy insurance if you can.[:'(]

That's right! What kind of plane do you have?

roltech

Yes, we were taught to drive before we goto behind the wheel. And we had to PROVE that we could safely operate a motor vehicle before we were given a license to drive the car. And we all carry insurance (or should) in the event that an accident occurs.

No, a half-square mile field isn't a reasonable precaution. Why not??? Well, consider that the range that you can control your plane at is well over a mile away, that half of a mile field isn't all the big. Trust me on this one, it's not that big.


Have you ever been hit by an RC airplane? Do you know how much it can hurt, how much injury it can do?? And before you ask, yes I have been hit by one. And in a similar situation too. Person at the field that was trying to fly a plane that was too advanced for him and he refused to ask for any help either.

To be totally honest with you it really doesn't matter what type of plane you are flying. It's not the plane we are talking about here. What everybody is talking about it your attitude about it. Here is what you first posted in this thread

Ok, we have given you our advice. For this reason I think you are here just looking for attention. You want everybody to make a fuss over what you are doing. I never have understood people that have to act like that, but then again I don't have to understand it to recognize it and react to it.

Ken

Bruce is 100% correct here.

A little earlier I said that I was going to leave the thread open to see what transpired. Well, it's pretty much obvious now that this thread has become a waste of time. Everybody can sit here and give their advice until the cows come home, but it's become apparent to me that the advice given will fall on deaf ears. I'm locking this thread down.

Ken