I am a beginner RC pilot having purchased and totaled 2 Freedom Flyers. The 1st never got off of the ground the 2nd had one 60 second flight and then crashed and while body was ok the motor must be damaged as it does not even turn over. So...

1- How easy is it to replace the motor in a Freedom Flyer (the fuselage doesn't look like it can be taken apart very easily)

2- What is the easiest RTF plane to fly for someone with ZERO flying experience?

Would appreciate the help as my kids are getting some pretty good laughs at Dad "teaching" them to fly...

I can't comment on the Freedom Flyer as I'm not familiar with the product.

Most here will tell you that it's not a very good idea to try and go it alone with no experience whatsoever, but that finding a local club to offer some instruction would be a wise thing to do and save you from a lot of unnecessary exepense and frustration.

That said, the Aerobird/Firebird series of electric RTFs are very easy to fly and will give you some good experience and they are pretty durable with replacement parts readily available and fairly cheap. Here's a link to Horizon Hobby's site for the Aerobirds:

http://www.horizonhobby.com/Search/D...erobird&CatId=

These are, however, usually available at your local hobby store.

Welcome to RCU and flying. Have you considered joining a club? Nearly all clubs offer free instruction and NC has clubs all over the state. To find one, try the AMA club locator: http://www.modelaircraft.org/clubsearch.aspx

If you're determined to go it alone, the most helpful thing I can suggest would be a computer RC Flight simulator. Students who arrive at the field with a hundred or so hours working on the sim typically solo very quickly.

Best wishes,
Dave Olson

Learning to fly on your own is a bad idea, learning to fly on your own with your kids present is a terrible idea. As a person with no RC flight experience all sorts of things can happen to cause you to lose control of the airplane and you can imagine what will happen if the plane flies into someone. Get some instruction from a qualified instructor at a local club. Besides that, you will save a whole bunch of money on replacement airplanes.
Regards,
doubledee

Any suggestions on Flight sims for a newbie?

real flight g3 is a great sim [sm=thumbup.gif][sm=thumbup.gif][sm=thumbup.gif]`there are several others that are just as good ..... make sure you get the right mode (probably mode 2) mode 1 throttle on the right stick mode 2 throttle on the left stick if in Raleigh check out RDRC

You can download FMS flight sim for free. IT isn't really fancy but there are lots of different models available for it. SOme have been made by users to look and act like the RC models that they are flying at the field. I down loaded a Hobbico Brightstar and it flew exactly like the real one that I used to fly. [8D]

Stupid question but I did not see any model that was labeled Brightstar..Help

i started out with an Aerobird Challenger. its a great plane to start with. its capable of up/down,left/right, and throttle up/down. its around 100 bucks and is a good plane. i've crashed mine into the ground 3 times, and one of them was into solid concrete. the only downside is its very lightweight and if theres too much wind, its goin down.

thanks for taking the time to answer my post.

The Brightstar is an out of production low wing, second airplane (I am currently flying one myself)
IMO even on a sim the brightstar would be a waste of time practicing on for now. Start with a high wing trainer.