I am new to the nitro plane world and I have only been able to meet with my instructor once since I bought my plane. I am needing more training and it just seems my trainer is too busy to work with me every week. Does anyone have any suggestions on whether electric park flyers or flight simulators for pc's are good training tools?

Have you contacted the club in your area?? You can find their website here: [link=http://www.propbusters.com]www.propbusters.com[/link] . Most clubs have more than one instructor, so get ahold of them and see what they can offer you. As far as using a simulator, a simulator is a great training tool but it doesn't replace an instructor.

Ken

Uh ken, that web site doesn't come up for me. Maybe it's my problem.

It didn't come up for me either. Here's the club contact info

Ken

yes i have contacted them. i have met an instructor once but this past week his work schedule changed and he works nights then sleeps during the day. so he has very little time to meet with me and I want to find an additional form of training to use when I can not meet with my instructor. are there any particular flight sims that you recommend? we have a hobby town usa close to us and they have a flight sim that I was considering, its called hangar 9FS One.

First - I would urge you to use more than one instructor if necessary AND available. Second - I know nothing about sims

As I said earlier, and Bruce also said, flight simulators are not trainers. The best way to use a flight simulator for leaning is in conjuntion with you instructor. You should use the simulator at home to practice what you learn at the field from you instructor. I know that it's not what you want to hear, but give the instructor a chance.

Ken

I'm not a sim user either...but if you have the money to blow on one, I'd say get a GWS parkflyer (pico stick), it can be set up the same as your trainer channel wise, and you can fly it at your local schoolyard or huge parking lot if needed...any time in the air is practice, you already have a radio so all you need is a micro rx, 3 or 4 small nicad batts, and a small esc, once you have that, the foam kits are cheap $30-$40 bucks...anyway it will all cost less than a sim....Rog

While you can learn to fly on your own, it ends up being very expensive and takes MUCH longer. Yes, sims can help, but like Ken says, see if there are other instructors available that could train you. If not in the club that is nearest to you, check with another club. You might have to drive a longer distance, but you'll get the training you need to do it right.

mhkkhc4:

Do not resort to park flyers as a means of supplementing actual flight instruction. You will develop bad habits that will
be difficult to overcome. I understand your frustration and impatience because you are anxious to learn. That's good, shows that you are really willing to put in the effort.

Like Ken said, contact your instructor, ask him if the club has another instructor that you could use when he is not available, due to his work schedule. I am sure he will understand your ernestness, because once he was where you are. You just want to fly, fly, fly.

In the meantime, go to the beginners forums and read every thread. YOu will be amazed how much information you can pick up that will be of great benefit later on.

Good Luck, Best Wishes and welcome to the "addiction" of RC radio control flying.

I'm in the same boat as you,
I contact a club where I am and meet with the president of the club
next weekend I be training and I have 10 insturctors training me
and aiming to get my AMA card next mounth.

First of all I understand your frustration. Please remember the people who instruct volunteer to do so because they want to help others learn our great hobby and he is probably equally frustrated that he can't get the time with you. I am a new instructor working on my 3rd student as of yesturday. The difference between this student and my first two is that the first two had simulator experience. Thus they did not have disorientation problems... just technique. This third student will be more challenging and will probably take a little longer to get him comfortable with his plane. With that said, I do recomend a simulator as you can fly your desktop reguardless of weather and a park flyer is grounded when the winds exceed 5 mph.

PM me if your ever in Fayetteville, NC on a nice weekend day (Fri, Sat. Sun) and I will take you out with my trainer if need be.

Good luck, Have fun, Don't quit.

If you crash it's no big deal they make spare parts to fix it
What you think of the avistar mk 2?

Sometimes they are beyond repair. "Spare parts" would be called "a new plane".

As for being a big deal or not, that would depend upon your checkbook.

Well before you fly your good buy an ugly plane like a dura plane.

my best advise would be to purchase a simulator, like realflight and fly on it untill your eyes fall out of their sockets...when I bought my nexstar the first thing I did was start flying on the simulator it came with. I would sit for hours flying patterns untill my landings and take offs were perfect..then three months later I got my first lesson and it took me a week to fly my first solo.. I think simulators,(if used correctly) are a great help..but remember nothing beats real flight time..

Hi,

Any professional RC flying schools there?

Regards,

Adarsh

realflight and sms (the free flight sim downloadable online(google it))are the only sims i have experience with and realflight just beats the pants off of sms, but sms is a great trainer and you can get a usb radio on ebay for around 25$ and you can learn to fly simulator style for 25 bucks or you can opt for h9 fsone or realflight for 200$ and really knock some time off of your training period, either way sims are a super way to learn the basic physics of flight as well as stick movement etc. but it is like these guys said parkflyers teach you bad habits that you then have to unlearn, but they do help better than nothing i can guarantee you that! its up to you really, good luck!

Yes there are, look em up in the RC magazine classifieds or google em.

However, I have found that they tend to be expesive and you usually have to travel to them, more expense. Just go the long route and find a local club. They will help you out an not charge you anything (Aside from membership dues when you get hooked and join em! )

That free simulator would be FMS not SMS and you would need to buy a cord to hook your transmitter to the computer.
I used Real Flight simulator myself and it cut my training time in half, used in conjunction with an instructor it is a very usefull tool and worth far more than the retail cost. It is also good for practicing aerobatics before trying them with your real plane.
From what I have heard the Hanger 9 FS-One is a great sim but I haven't tried it myself.

FMS is pretty good to, graphics arent what you see with the spendy ones, but Im not after pretty pictures I want to fly!

hahahaha missleman thanks for correcting me on that.. yes FMS hahaha sms means short messaging system which is a text message on a cell phone.. FMS means flying model simulator or something to that affect.. anywho, all day today i have been rebuilding my motorcycle that was oil starved due to a clogged in-frame screen, so thats my excuse and i am sticking to it!