Bought a trainer the other week. Firebirdxl. It's electric with a 2ch radio. Looking for some tips on getting it into the air. The times when I was able to take it out was kind of windy and had a bad experience. I was able to take off from a rolling start. It climbed and I was able to get it turned around. Unfortunately I think the wind got under it and took it out of my control. However i was lucky and it glided itself down in a near by field. No visual damage. Still feeling kind of leary I took it out again the next day. Not as windy but still some. Did a hand launch and was able to keep it in site. Until it landed. I guess I am looking for some beginner flying tips. From a rolling start how high should I let it get before I back off the throttle? When it's flying away from me the left and right turns are easy. Is there a little trick for left and right turns when it's flying toward me? I'm new at this and I'm pretty sure I'll have other questions as I advance. Thanks in advance for any help that may be offered.

Dunk1,

First of all welcome to RCUnivirse.
You will find a whole lot of information on this site.

Ok.

I have a Firebird XL.
Let me give you some thoughts.

Wind: Do not fly in the wind. It is very hard to control this plane in the wind. It does not turn very fast so you can get in trouble very easily. I fly a zagi and 40 size glow models and I have a hard time controlling this in the wind.

Location: You do need a very large field to fly this plane. It can get away from you so if you do need to let it glide down on it's own then you can find it.

Control: I found that mine turns one way better than the other. I can't remember which way right now. It also turns better with the power on. So if you need to turn hit the power make your turn and power down. This is the best way to control it.

I always hand launch it. It also lands better with out the wheels. Grass and these wheels do not work.

What I do on a flight it hand launch it. let it get 50 feet up and power off. Power on during turns, keeping it in front of me the whole time. Set up the landing from one side and let it glide in.

Pick it up and try it again.

Bill

Redwing pretty much nailed it with his comments

I had a fighterbird last summer pretty similar to the firebirdxl.

I would go one step further and recommend that if you are seriously considering staying involved in this hobby that you GET RID of your firebird!!!

Here's why;

The firebirdxl and copies of it flew and react so differently then conventional (3-4 ch) models that learning how to fly one will not help you when it gets time to try your next model infact you will be at a disadvantage since you will have to UNLEARN some things.

Redwing recommends flying the model and using power to aid in turning he is correct. However on conventional models that are tirmed out it is possible to fly the model with the throtle in one spot. Also on mode 2 radios the throtle is on the left stick and the elevator is on the right stick when flying the firebird you use the wrong stick to control altitude.

I'm not bashing the firebirds... It's just that having experience with conventional glow powered and electric powered planes that I see the firebird as more of a toy that will quickly teach you bad habits and potentially turn you away from this hobby.

If your interested in a small electric plane (parkflyer/slowflyer) then I would suggest the GWS Tigermoth or picostick. These planes fly and react in a manner that is much closer to other models you may want to fly..

As allways getting some experienced help is worth more then you may imagine...

Hey Thanks alot Redwing & Crashem. For all of your suggestions. If i get decent weather this weekend I'll go out and give it another try. As i said in my first post, I'm pretty sure I'll be asking questions again.By the way Crashem is there a hobby store online that has the GWS Tigermoth or picostick? Thanks again

Horizon Hobbies distrubutes the GWS line of park/slowflyers

Thanks!! Do you know what their website is?

Dunk1,

I also agree with Crashem's many good points.

If you like flying R/C, there are way better planes to fly even if you stay with park flyers. I also consider the Firebird types to be toys. I bought it for my son to start flying and found out that it's not the way to teach him. He is going to start training on a glow powered trainer this summer at our club.

If this is as far as you want to go then ok but it's a whole lot more fun flying real R/C planes.

Bill

http://www.horizonhobby.com/