Wekk I have a huge question..Everyone says the only way to learn to fly a plnae the correct way is to get with a club and an instructer..What about guys like myself?I have never flew a plane before so I went out and bought the real flight sim and have spent several hours on it.I then went out and bought the j-3 cub and made many many flights with it.I then got the super cub and again made many many flights with it.I live in the middle of 25 acres and my neighbor has 48..I want to fly my plane at home and kinda want to learn on my own.I bought the avistar and am self teaching myself.I have pleny of runway for landing and take off.A ton of open space.And a wonderfull group of people on here with awsome advice..What is the down fall of learning on your own?I am sure there have been many many pilots that have been self taught.
Thanks in advance for not yelling at me..lol

Well, I was self taught and did fly for almost three years all by myself with a nexstar and no crashs during that time or even causing any damage to my plane. And yes I did fly alot.

So yes I self taught myself how to fly, but once I got hooked up with some season flyers I was taught so much from them that I would have never of known about with out their help. Like new flying skills, tuning of the engine, etc.... So I would say try to get up with some other flyers and it will open up a whole new rc area for you, plus it is great to do what we love to do with others that fell the same as you do about flying.

I have been teaching myself as well for the last 2 month's. I live in the country on an 125 acre's in Ga. To make this breif, I just joined the AMA and plan on joining a local club around my area. You can learn alot of proper technique's from seasoned pro's and its alot of fun seeing what everyone is flying. Meet new ppl and they have cookout's at the local club i'm hoping to join. Anyway best of luck to ya either way.
Cody

I think the biggest downfall is what might happen to your wallet. Repair and replacement can get costly and your likelihood of needing one or both is greater when you go it alone. It's not impossible, but certainly more expensive.

just my thoughts....

erik

I'm 100% self taught. I began with a wide, wide, wide open area and with an electric Zagi 400. The plane flew about 30 feet and crashed. I picked it up, made some mental adjustments and flew it again. That was about 7 years ago. I now fly mostly glow, but still tinker with electrics and now even electric helicopters which I'm also self taught on.

It's not impossible to self teach as I'm an example. I think understanding the main concepts of flight like: thrust, lift, drag, windspeed, airspeed, glide ratios, sink rates, etc, etc, etc, helps out a lot. Also being able to tell between left, right, up and down helps too, then remembering when inverted up means down and down means up. If the plane is flying towards you, left is right and right is left. Geezzz.

I'm with probably the majority, if you're able get some help, do it. It's not only the flying but the setup of the actual plane, control surfaces all moving in their correct directions respectively, engine turning, battery charging, servo setup (zero the servo/neutral), etc, etc, etc.

Best of luck,,,,

NOBODY has said that you MUST join a club or have an instructor. What most of us HAVE said is that it greatly increases the probability of success. I stand behind that statement to this day.

Can a person do it without those things? Some can, some can't without major expense.

I went the same route as you are doing, got a sim and spent ALOT of time on it before taking a trainer up (PT40). I was fully prepared to crash the 1st time out, money and ego wise. But it has survived so far, and am onto other planes. But I like to learn things on my own, even knowing sometimes it will costs a lit' extra.
Yes one can teach themselve to fly successfully, many have and many more will follow. But I will agree with the majority, it is probably better to use an instructor.
Good luck!

Go for it!

Sooner or later you're going to mash one up.

You Da Man!

I`m self taught.
When I first started last Dec. , I tried to hook up with a local club, went to 2 meetings , made phone calls, e-mails and got nowhere for 3 months. So I taught myself.
I did join another club , Was invited by another RCU member. great group of people with some of the best instructors around. And it would have been great to hook up with them from the start.
If you can hook up with an instructor , I would do it, as it will put you that much farther ahead of the game. Just learning nitro engine for the first time can drive a guy nuts. But if your like me , your going to teach yourself to fly and nothing is going to stop you. lol.
If your going to teach yourself I recommend that you build an LT40 {RCKens follow build thread} as this well help you with the upcoming repairs and the LT40 is probably the best all around trainer out there. Use a 11x5 Master Airscrew prop. as they hold up well to ground strikes and help slow the plane down on landings.
Another thing to consider, after you take off , you still have to trim the plane, which can be a handful the first time you do it. Practice trimming on the Sim so you don`t need to look down to find the clicks. Also pratice deadsticks and crosswind landings. The Sim is not the same as the real thing , but it is a good tool .
For landings, since you have a large open area , make sure you can land into the wind , no matter which direction the wind is blowing., and give yourself plenty of room , as a trainer can float for ever.
The biggest advantage for me joining a club , was the friends I`ve made and they got all kinds of cool flying machines.lol Take a weekend day and drive over to your closest club, look at a few planes , talk to the guys, watch a little flying. I`m willing to bet , you`ll be glad you did.
Anyhow, keep us posted and good luck.

If someone has alot of land, my suggestion would be just find an instructor for one season. Then, start flying on your own. Im just learning, and i cant imagine what it would be like, if i didnt have my intructor.

Originally, everyone who flew was self taught. One of the problems was a "fly - crash - rebuild - fly again" cycle. That was frustrating and expensive.

To eliminate the crash portion of the cycle, instructors have come up with many methods. Some now argue about the best methods, but the student still benefits from the lack of crashes and damage to the plane.

A more recent development has been the plane that is not damaged in a crash, or is easily repaired. Earlier versions (Sturdy-Birdy and similar planes) were still heavy enough to break when crashed, and required less expensive repair. Lightweight electrics are available now, with inexpensive repair / replace parts available.

Take your pick, there are lots of ways to start flying. If other people are there, they will want to get involved. If you're alone, choose a method you can afford.

Good luck,
Dave Olson

Wow..I love the awsome advice I get from here..please don't get me wrong I do want to learn the proper way to fly.I am however very hard headed and will probably put this beast in the air for the first time on my own.lol. just how I am.I did go to a club this weekend and met alot of very nice people and I am in the process now of joining the ama.I am going to become a member of this club.If I can get one very cheap would any of you guys recommend a duraplane for my maiden flight with a glow plane or put my avistar in the air.?My neighbor has offered to sell me one for somewhere around the 75.00 range with a 40 la on it.

I think I read that Clyde Cessna built his first plane in 1916 (or there abouts) AND

He taught himself how to fly it!!

Now THAT'S scary!

Daver

a few of my friends had duraplanes and they flew awful, go with the avistar. I taught myself on a cox ez bee. 4 wing sets and 2 fuselages later I had saved (somehow) enough money to buy my first nitro arf. Never looked back from then on. crashed 3 trainers in the process. I had no internet or knew nothing about clubs and the ama. the best thing I have ever done tho was to join my club. It is just more fun to be with others that are flying. If I fly by myself I get bored. I like watching as much as flying.

jdkxtreme look at it this way. Your cheating everyone, your cheating yourself of the good advice of all the people that have tried what you haven't thought of yet. Your cheating yourself out of free flying lessons, free mind you, Your cheating yourself out of all the good friends you haven't met yet. And your cheating everyone else of the pleasure of your friendship.
So that you can say you were self taught?
Good luck on your flights.
I am glad you met some of your local club members, I hope you begin to see what I mean about cheating everyone

Count me among the self taught. I had a few lessons 20 years ago, but life got in the way and kept me from continuing...

Then I bought a GWS cub and learned how to crash it more gently each time I took it out. Once I had mastered crashing, I was able to figure out sustained flight. I went through a couple more cheap electric foamies, then built an electric balsa aileron trainer and re-joined the local club. Once I could fly the electric aileron trainer confidently, I built a Kadet LT-25 and hung a Fox .40BB on the nose. I did have a club instructor maiden that plane for me. After he trimmed it out, he handed me the Tx, watched me fly for about a minute and walked away. He said, "you don't need me. Think you can land in one piece?" I did.

Important caveat: Learning on your own is not for everyone. I tried and failed several times to learn how to fly r/c, and that's with full scale aviation experience and years of building simple free flight gliders and rubber-banders. Learning to fly with help is the smartest thing to do, but it is not the only way.

Flight sims help a lot! i use my a lot and my first attempt at landing was almost too easy! My flight instructor didnt even tell me i was going to attempt a landing, he just said we were going to practice aproaches and on my very first approach he told me to try and land.

and by the way, most flight sims have virtual flight instructors and they can help too.

Flight sims are a great training aid but they arent a substitute for an instructor. They can't teach you safety, how to set up a plane properly or tune an engine and the million other things you learn by being around people that have done this for a while?

Can it be done? Sure. Is it easy/safe/cost effective? You have to decide that one for yourself.

Having just bought my first rc airplane yesterday I can add a couple things. I have had only minimal advice given to me from Hobby store guys and what I have read off boards and websites and I worked for about an hour on realflights simulator. Other than that, I would say I have had zero instruction. I bought Hobby Zone's Super Cub and after an hour of setup and battery charging I was up and flying. While my landings were less than spectacular I did not have a major crash. The 3 channel remote, speed, and handeling of the Cub was obviously something a beginner can take home and have success with.
Having said that, I would not feel comfortable buying a gas airplane with 4 or 5 channels and all sorts of complicated setup, let alone trying to fly without an experienced buddy standing near by helping me with everything. For any "self taught" people who accomplished this, kudos to you. Your braver than me.

Good points and good advice, Xirtic 88.

To all discussing Instructor -- no instructor:

There is no doubt that anyone can learn RC or even 1:1 scale (should he live long enough) all by himself. Kind of same story here. I had been an ardent competition modeler in FF and CL for many years. I entered RC about 1970. Built a big trainer, somewhat like an "Ugly Stick" and went out to an "outlaw" field. No one there so I started up and was practicing taxi around.
Well, at the time I was very familiar with glow-engines, decent builder, and as an AF pilot, I had been supersonic both straight up and straight down. I could well fly that toy airplane. To make the story brief, when I rebuilt it, I went to a regular field and (no buddy boxes back then) with a couple flights of grab-the-box, I went solo. Believe you me it was much flying and a year before I finally really became a competent pilot with most any model of the day.

RC is as full scale. Being the hottest "Stick" does NOT a pilot make! PILOTS think ahead, plan for safety, and what the airplane can do, cannot do, and what COULD happen. On the otherhand "airplane-drivers" are just that -- airplane drivers. Just because one can get up in the air and get down without re-kitting the machine does not make one a RC pilot, but just an airplane driver.

Get a good instructor, learn the basics, get soloed, and just keep learning. If you're not the best 3D in the group, so what? I've known many a hot-stick RCer that cannot take a large untrimmed scale machine into the air without snap-rolling on TO.
There will always be airplane drivers and there will be PILOTS. It's your choice.