Hello, I am new to site and new to hobby. I was looking at something like the Hanger 9 Arrow. My question is how necessary is it to have an instructor? Can I learn myself with any chance of success?

A few other questions I have are: How thick/high grass can the plane land in? And also, what else should I buy to get me started?

Thanks alot.... I love the site.

Arrow is a good plane, I suggest you find a combo setup with a plane, radio and engine. I guess if you want to try this yourself with no instructor, well after you buy it all, just run over it with your car. Save you the aggravation of assembling it all and 5 seconds after takeoff, it's garbage material. Sorry to be blunt but thats the way it is.

Find a club and do it right.

I agree. You will be soooo much happier if you get and instructor and learn with YOUR plane on a buddy box! It is as close to a sure thing as you are going to find and the hobby will be MUCH more enjoyable for you. As for the grass...the plane will fly off of fairly tall grass but the shorter the better.

I agree as well.I fly helis and thought a plane would be well easy.Trust me i was wrong.Dont go for it on your own.

The first thing that will happen during takeoff, is the plane will turn sharply either left or right, and nose in. You'll end up bringing the plane back, restarting it, and then trying again. After a couple attempts, you'll get it up. Then it's likely to bank immediately in one direction or other, and you may over control it. In that case, it'll dip one wing into the ground and you'll end up with the wing broken in half and the front part of the fuselage damaged with the motor hanging off of one bolt, with a lot of dirt thrown into the engine by the prop. The front fuselage will split, and perhaps there'll be damage to the firewall. You'll need a lot of epoxy, CA, and time before getting out to the field again if you want to fix it. Or, you may opt for another ARF and try your luck again.

If the plane you buy ends up perfectly trimmed right out of the box, you might have problems during the first few attempts at takeoff, and then finally get it up in the air. Or, takeoff may be the easiest part of the flight depending on the circumstances. Then you may have problems with orientation, especially with the plane coming towards you after the second banking turn since the ailerons will seem to be reversed. Then it'll get nosed into the ground and re-kitted. Or, you'll forget to use a bit of up elevator during a bank and the plane will dive and nose in, don't forget to bring a plastic bag. There are people who have trained themselves, with no simulator or instructor, but ended up rebuilding their trainer several times before finally getting it right.

If there is no instructor or club available, my recommendation is that you get a simulator and practice on it first. In fact, you could get a Hobbico Nexstar Select which comes with a simulator. Spend a good 40 hours practicing on that before your first flight so you get to know the orientation and how the plane is likely to behave in different circumstances, and be sure to play with the weather settings too. After that, you may have some luck doing it yourself but I wouldn't bank on it. On your first flight after practicing on the simulator, you may land it hard and have to fix the landing gear, but it's better than trying to fly with no experience or practice on a simulator. If the landing gear gets ripped out of the fuselage during a hard landing, you'll end up spending a few nights at home, on the bench, with epoxy and some hardware if you're good at fixing stuff. If you don't like glue, then you can always get parts for the Nexstar (a fuselage costs $60.00) Again, my advice is to find a club and get an instructor. I wish you the best of luck.

NorfolkSouthern

In order to succeed:

Mistakes in assembly of the kit can make the airplane crash. Do you know what they are?

Mistakes in breaking in the engine can make the engine almost worthless for a beginner to learn with. Do you know them?

Mistakes in setting up the airplane for flight can kill the airplane on it's first flight. Do you know what they are?

Mistakes in assembly can make the engine almost impossible to start and unreliable to run. Do you know what they are?

Mistakes in setting the engine for flight can make it unreliable for flight and doom any flight. You know them?

there are more, but these ought to be enough..............

Think it over.

BTW, even if you have the misfortune to blunder past all the pitfalls and somehow get your first airplane into the air for it's first flight, almost every airplane will need to be adjusted on it's first flight. They don't usually fly their first flights "straight". Experienced pilots often have their hands full with airplanes on the airplane's maiden flights. Airplanes do not fly their first flights dependably enough that someone flying for the first time will be able to learn to fly it.

You won't know how to fly so how are you going to know how to fly an airplane that isn't flying right?

Find an instructor.

Of the people that go it alone only a small percentage are successful. About once a year we have a pilot come to the field that flys a full scale something or other, private pilot, military, whatever. They dont ask for help because they are already a pilot. 9 times out of 10 they end up taking thier plane home in a dust buster. The 10th usually cant find thier plane to take it home.

The idea that you can learn to fly without an instructor is absolutely false. What you are doing if you (try to) learn to fly by yourself is that you are your own instructor. An inexperienced and somewhat clueless instructor. Better to find an instructor who is qualified.

I am now and have been an instructor pilot for many years, more years than I care to remember. I am however self taught, some 30 plus years ago and I can tell you with complete honesty, join a club and get an instructor to work with you. You may want to find a club prior to buying your radio, so that you can buy a brand of radio that will work with the instructor for the buddy box system. This will also allow you to get a feel of what the club is all about as well as the members. The club that I am a member of has a club plane that we allow prospective RC flyers to take a flight on with a buddy box to get a feel for what RC is really all about. Maybe your local club has a program like this as well. Good Luck, Dave

If you need to ask this question, then you do need an instructor. After recovering from an extended illness which caused me to not fly for 18 months, I requested an instructor to get me back up to speed. It's a matter of common sense. That which you do daily, stay's fresh. That which you have little or no knowledge of, or have not performed recently, requires some instruction.

Bill, AMA 4720
WACO Brotherhood #1

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if you dont get one, please video your flight and post it in the crash section. I will be waiting for the vid. good luck

Dave,
There aren't any clubs in Mcalester that I could find, but there are a couple of clubs near you. They are both about 25 miles away. Here is the information for them.

KIAMICHI VALLEY FLIERS ASSO
25.58 miles 3164
HANK O MOONEY RT 2 BOX 329
WILBURTON OK 74578
Phone: 918/465-2018

LAKE EUFAULA R/C MODELERS
26.85 miles 3758
WILLIS RICE RT 4 BOX 2330
EUFAULA OK 74432
Phone: 918.689.2380

Url: [link]http://www.web-source.com/flyers.htm[/link]

Hope this helps

Ken

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Buy a Nexstar and turn off the AFS. Get an instructor and learn on a buddy box. Your are guarantied success by Hobbico. If you crash they give you another plane for free. You just have to be an AMA member and a member of an AMA registered club. You also must use a club instructor. Mine crashed because of a bad clevis on the elevator and in 4 days total time I had a new Nexstar. The simulator that comes with it will really help you learn the basics. But don't try it on your own, you will crash!!!

Gibbs

There have been quite a few people since I have joined this forum that have come on here asking a few questions and then claiming they are an exception and have no intention of getting an instructor.
I have seen all kinds of excuses from "I can fly anything" based on a few hours SIM time, to "I don't like people telling me what to do" to, "I can't find an instructor or club" when in most cases a search of the AMA club locator shows a bunch of them.
The one thing almost all of these posters have in common is either they post back asking how to fix their airplanes or we never hear from them again.
Yes there are some people that do learn by themselfs but that is very rare and the ones that did usually went through a number of airplanes and quite alot of money doing it.
On the other hand I have seen a large number of people come on here and did work with an instructor and from those I have heard nothing but success stories.
If you add up the cost of even one major crash the cost of club membership is a real value and almost all clubs provide free training.
Best of luck to you.

No, you don't have to get an instructor. Just put whatever you were going to spend in an envelope and send it to me. You are going to crash. Sending me the money will save you the pain of picking up the pieces.

I am repairing my Hangar 9, Alpha 60 right now, and I have an instructor and a very good one. My depth perception is not what it should be and I thought I was
lined up with the runway, but sadly discovered I was about 20 ft out and landed in a ditch tearing the firewall out. Fortunately, I am able to repair will
little fuss.

I would have sworn I was lined up. At our field 10 ft. makes a lot of difference. The territory surrounding the runway is very rough. I am thankful for my
instructor who was able to save me from an even worse crash. I am a few more flights away from my solo, but my instructor has had to save my plane
more than once. Yours will too.

I might mention that the relationship you build with your instructor is priceless. Mine has helped me so much, teaching me safety, setup, preflight. The other
pilots will appreciate you more, also. Because they see you getting proper instruction and when you solo they will not be concerned about the safety of their
planes or persons.

Congratulations, welcome to RC. Do it right, and you will love it.

Okay, you are asking; 'can I learn to fly without an instructor?' The answer is yes. But how hard do you want to work and how much do you want to spend? I am self taught or as another posted I was my own instructor. I started by going to the Local Hobby Shop (LHS) and picked up a Park Zone J-3 Cub. I bought it twice for the cost of repairs. So thats about $320. Then I bought a Hobbico Nexstar Select; great deal for $300 brand new. I put it in the closet and deployed to Iraq for 4 months with a laptop computer and RealFlight G2 (about $100 used on RCU classifieds) and practiced during all of my spare time. I probably have 200+ hours on the simulator now. Well I got back last January found my local club and feild and took my plane up for a successfull day one solo. However!!! I do a lot of reading and learned how to set up the plane, ground trim and tune the engine. I also have extensive background with nitro R/C cars so the engine was not entirely foreign to me. So all in all from start (J-3 Cub purchase) to finish (solo flight with Nexstar) was about 1 Yr. + or - a few months. If that sounds like what you want to do or something you can do then go for it. But if something goes wrong refer to the above posts and select the apropriate, "I told you so." Make no mistake! I wish you the best of luck.

Of course you can learn to fly eventually without an instructor. It's boils down to how many airplanes will it take? You can do it with an instructor in one airplane![sm=wink_smile.gif]

If this doesn't bring it home, I don't know what will. Just yesterday a guy showed up w/ a Parkzone P-51- no instructors- no experience-no questions asked of me. The flyte lasted 5 seconds. Plane totally destroyed!! Out of about 100.00-200.00 in 5 seconds. Nuff said.Rob.

Shoot, we had a guy once on his way to the field with his plane in the back of his truck. Tailwas facing the fron of the truck. Had to stop short to avoid and accident. Plane came slamming too the cab. Destroyed it and hadn't even arrived at the field yet

Daaaannnnggg!!!!![sm=thumbs_down.gif]

There is more to flying than "flying" ... thats where the instructor/club really comes in.

qwerty11 - You didn't indicate where in TN you are located. It near Memphis or if you can just get here for a weekend or 2 I'd be happy to try to get you started. Let me know.

You people make it sound SO harsh. To be honest, I was self taught. No instructor no nothing. I did however have alot! of expirence with how aiplanes work (flying simulators my whole life) but just not RC sims, commercial plane sims and they are way harder than a stupid little RC sim. All you really need to know is the basics of how flight actually works, either read about it or learn it over a sim. Also I know a great deal about nitro engines and how engines operate, that too will help you alot in terms of maintainig it and breaking it in. They're are plenty of good websites for beginners like us to read about RC plane.

You wanna know my first solo flight was? none of you are gonna believe me but its true. My first solo (even my friend was just looking at me to say "Are u f-ing serious?!", was in severe weather. First it was sprinkling, and i didnt care I was just so eager to fly, took off with no trouble and then the heavy rain came and was pissing down. A few wind gust here and there, I couldnt believe it. I flew for about 5 mins and I said to myself "this is getting rediculous" so i made a crash landing, and to my suprise it landed quite good. Shut everything off and raced back to shelter. What an idiot i said to myself. Im sure people have had worse cases of this, but for a begginer, I was just plain stupid to do that. Now im enjoying my solos on my own, and im loving it!!!

I think its ok to teach yaself, just gotta know the basics.