I have the firebird phantom but it seems very fast and hard to get use to. I have smashed it into alot of stuff and it is very tough which is good. Is this too fast of a plane for a beginner or do you smash until you get it right. I have other planes that I built but they are to nice to distroy learning. I also built a Slo-V but afraid I will just kill it. Would like to fly but can only fly Air Hog Aero Aces. Ron

Try one of these:

[link=http://www.horizonhobby.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=HBZ7100]Super Cub[/link]

It's very easy to fly, and it's a lot of fun.

Many have mentioned the Super Cub is a good choice but what about tough? Can it take a hit? I would hate to buy a nice plane like this and wreck it right away. I guess you gotta do something to learn. Ron

Oh yea, it's all foam. A little epoxy or duct tape and it'll be good as new

I hate to crash these planes when I start. Is crashing normal when learning? Ron

When trying to teach yourself to fly on an electric plane, crashing is just part of the learning process.

Your Slo-V would actually be a very good starter plane, darticus. It's designed to fly more slowly than the Phantom and it's manuverable enough that it can be flown inside of a gymnasium. If you fly the Slo-V outside, however, you will need to fly in very calm conditions.

There is an AMA chartered flying club listed for your home town of Sparta, NJ called the Garden State Circle Burners. While the club is specifically dedicated to control line flying, I'd be surprised if there weren't a few R/C pilots in the club who'd be happy to help you out:

http://www.gscb.us/

Try contacting the club and finding a flight instructor who could give you a hand. I actually started out a few years ago with an Aerobird Challenger, and my experience was simlar to yours. I spent a lot of time bouncing it off of trees and soccer fields, but I didn't have much luck flying it. I found a flying club and took flight training on their club glow trainers, and once I learned how to fly glow planes I found I could fly my aerobird much better as well.

I have to agree with Big Ed. My family bought me the Super Cub for Christmas. While I've had fun with it, I've done nothing but crash it. I am scheduled to meet with a local instructor this weekend to be taught on a glow plane. I can't wait!

The main advantage of electrics are how tough they are. I've crashed mine a lot and just had to do minor repairs. If you ding the foam on the plane, you can just use clear packing tape over the area and you don't even notice. The parts for the Super Cub are SUPER CHEAP also. I have even stuck it in a couple of big pine trees and it's come out unscathed. However, I think the best way to learn is with an instructor. If you use a buddy box system, your instructor can take control immediately when you have problems. I also think I will do better with a heavier plane that can handle the wind a little better.

Good luck!

Thanks Guys
I really would like to learn using the electric plane. What makes it easier to learn on the gas motor plane? I will eventually get rid of all these trees than its buildings etc. Thats a good signature quote how do I add that to my profile? Thanks Ron

Glow planes, as dwilt72 mentioned, can handle wind better and are more stable in a breeze. They also have more control authority and tend to go where you point them. With my Aerobird Challenger, I felt like I wasn't really telling it where to go, I was merely making suggestions. I also found the fishing line and little plastic screws harder to keep trimmed out properly compared to the metal pushrods and "L" bends on a glow trainer.

You don't have to find a club to train at or switch to glow planes, darticus. You will eventually learn to fly well with your Firebird Phantom and Slow-V. The Slo-V is a great choice for slow flight, and should be a lot of fun when the wind is down. You are going to have more crashes, however, and you need to be prepared to keep replacing wings, tail sets, and propellers for a while.

Good luck!

I don't want to bash any company but I will tell about my experience with Hobbyzone tech support.I bought a Firebird Phantom and flew it. I'm not a neubie to R/C but I landed maybe hard and it broke right at the carbon rod where the control wires come out.Went to my LHS for a fuselage of course none in stock. So I get another RTF and flew that one and landed and it broke at the same place!Call Hobbyzone's tech support they wanted me to ship back both fuseage's at my expense and they would check it out.Sorry no more Hobbyzone products for me!

This is a pretty common practice in the industry. Especially since you had two of them break in the same place. It's quite possible that Hobby Zone wanted them shipped back to inspect them to see if there was something that caused the failure.

Ken

Thanks Ken

But I would think they would offer to ship it back at their expense.I had some defective servos with Parkzone and they had them to me at no expense.Thats what I would expect from good tech support.

If you are running into a lot of stuff, then I bet your flying field is not big enough. I am flying an Aerobird Swift, and I initially tried flying it on a football field, but I found myself running out of room and hitting trees. I now fly at a field that is two football fields wide, and it gives me much more room to anticipate direction changes and I no longer crash into stuff.

I also fly at a club field with my glow planes, but I like to be able to fly my park flyer early in the morning on my way to work. My advice to you, is just find a bigger field, fly early in the morning when there is no wind (or people around), and get plenty of altitude before you try to maneuver. Other than hitting trees at the edge of the field, my most common mistake was flying too low and not having enough time to recover from minor mistakes.

And you can fix some really ugly crash damage with a roll of duct tape.

Good luck.

Thanks for the replies my Firebird Phantom just broke where the wires come out of the boom also.I overlaped it with a piece of fishing pole. Don't know if it will work.Ron

I'm glad to hear someone else say this, because that's EXACTLY what I felt like I was doing when flying my Super Cub! If I tried to control it's every move, it seem to wildly go all over the place. However, if I tried to let it go where it wanted and just "make suggestions" it always seemed to go down wind (since it's so light) and then when I needed to get it back upwind, it just didn't seem to have a lot of power, even in low wind conditions. I'm hoping my experiences will be much better with glow planes. I believe that having an instructor there that can take over the instant the plane has problems will really help me.

This is exactly what happened to me. I have gone through 3 Firebird Phantoms and they all broke at the spot you mentioned. I talked to a manager at Horizon Hobby repair and he is sending me a prepaid mailing label to return the 3rd plan. After returning the 2nd plane I indicated I wanted a different plane that would not break. The just sent me another Phantom. It broke on the first flight. After receiving the 3rd plane back, the manager will determine what different aircraft they will send me.

The funny part about this is I'd heard the Firebird Phantom was brought out to replace the Firebird Scout because the Scout had some kind of known design defect that the Phantom was supposed to replace. Maybe we'll see the Phantom MkII here in another couple of months...

Save your old fishing poles to fix them!

I don't fish.

I just got a super cub today and I am going to try to fly in the morning. I flew a glow trainer about 15 or so years ago. I am nervous. I was confident about flying it until I read this post. Now I am really nervous. I hope all goes well tomarrow. Wish me good luck

I just got finished flying my new super cub. WOW I am surprised how easy it was. I am flying in wind that I shouldnt be flying in but I was determend. I have got two batteries through her and not one crash![:-] I would recommend getting this one it super easy to fly

Hey there everyone

I bought a phantom a few days ago and sure enough, I snapped the boom. I brought it my LHS and they fixed it on the spot. Now, it flies like new (which is fast and hard to control, heh). How? Dental floss, a support, and zap CA. Altogether less than $10 and 10 minutes of time. Here's how it's done:

First, snake the antenna through the broken boom. Then, lightly CA the boom back together along with a small support (I used the plastic "support" piece hobbyzone tacked on, but i'm sure anything small, sized right, and strong may work) covering the split. **MAKE SURE THE REAR WINGS ARE LINED UP AS BEST AS POSSIBLE!** It's ok if the alignment is slightly off, you can fix that with the trim. oh, and make sure you don't glue the metal steering cables together or to the boom.

once attached, wrap some dental floss around the both sides of the support. Make sure you dont cover the steering cables or their opening.

CA the dental floss to the boom. IT hardens and becomes very strong. Also, a glue accelerator speeds up drying time so you can be out and flying the 'bird asap.

uhDONE.[8D]

Here's some pics:

I wish they would offer just the carbon tail boom as a seperate part. I fixed mine similar to this and broke it again first flight. Buying an entire fuselage is rediculous. I'm going to buy another fuselage and reinforce it before it breaks. I hope it lasts a little longer.

You can also take A 6mm rod split it down the middle then again thru that half then one more time to wind up with A very light splint. Use two one on each side of the boom just below the cut out for the metal controls that way you don't have glue on them.Or at least A much better chance of not getting glue on them in the first place. Start with black tape to hold the splints to the tail boom position them where you want them then glue with ca. No mess this way and you don't end op with fingers glued together. When secure attach tail to main boom and also tape on, position where you want then ca. now for A better looking repair and A little strength tape very lightly in black tape the whole repair. Be certain to use as little as possible as it might effect cg. remember tape isn't the bonder here the splints and ca are so use very sparingly and when your done it should hardly be noticeable. I've now had two of these birds and I highly modify them with diffent wings and everything from A 350 motor to brushless you think its fast now, my 380 and cut wing will do about 50 mph!!! I'll explin how to do later. I tend to babble on Oh well what can I say I love this hobby good luck!

The Firebird Phantom was designed after other Hobby Zone planes The fuselage boom on the Commander 2 is much thicker and stronger. The boom on the Phamtom is just too skinny and weak. It is a design flaw. After breaking and sending 3 Phantoms back to Horizon Hobby, they sent me a Commander 2. Although the Commander 2 is a two channel plane, it is a good plane to learn to fly with. It has taken a few hard crashes but with out any breaks. But I was successful at flying it. I would recommend it. I was getting pretty discouraged that I couldn't fly successfully at all.
I also have a Supercub. I have crashed it hard, breaking off the motor and the tail section. The beauty of the Cub is that with some epoxy and availability of inexpensive spare parts, I put it back together like new. I will use the Commander 2 to get used to flying, and then will go to the Super Cub and its' 3 channels next. I think the Cub is harder to fly because of the wing design. I believe the wing design of the Commander 2 is more foregiving and provides better lift and better recoverablity of errant control inputs from a beginner pilot.
Horizon Hobby was great at taking responsibity for their design flaw. You shouldn't have to repair a plane that has an inherant design flaw.