Hello all, I am new to the Airplane end of RC, I have been into trucks/cars for many years. I have the G3.5 flight sim demo and have spent MANY MANY hours on it. I bought an Avistar and I have been to my local field with an instructor pilot for my first flight (Flew twice that day). I took over control and was able to perform loops, rolls, figure 8's and I took off by myself twice. I set up for landing twice as well, but had the instructor pilot land it for me. What do I do next? Do I go for it and try to land it by myself or should I have more instruction? Also, I would like some recommendations for my next aircraft, I am planning on flying this plane for AT LEAST 6-12 months, but I would to start building a F4-u coarse air, or a P-51 Mustang. Thanks in Advance

OkieTrucker,
Welcome to RCU. We're glad that you found us, and I hope we can help you out. As for landing, just trust in your instructor. He's going to let you land when he thinks you're ready for it. Also, if you try to land and you're not ready he's just going to take the plane from you. But like I said, trust him to instruct you and he'll get you landing when you're ready.

As for going to a warbird. You really should get an intermediate plane between the trainer and warbird. A Sig 4-Star or Goldberg Tiger II would do gread. Also the Hanger 9 P-51 PTS might be a great step too.

Where is Pocola in Ok???

Ken

Thanks for reply. Pocola, OK is about 5 miles from the ARK border, near Fort Smith.

I thought it was somewhere over there, but was too lazy to pull it upon Google Earth.

Ken

You'll probably know when you're ready to land without asking. If your instructor hasn't offered maybe he knows you're not.

Slide something in with a low wing and in tail-dragger configuration with a higher wing loading before you try a war bird. A Sportster or a Uproar maybe? Warbirds are unforgiving of hard landings with the relatively weak and scale landing gear or when you mistakenly attempt too slow of a landing and stall at a low altitude. Crunch.

We have lost the concept of "low wing trainers" and "stunt trainers" and think of only one type of model when we hear the word "trainer" now. R/C used to be a progression. Simulators help, but the real world is still different.

Agree with the warbird probably being too big a step and go for an intermediate and also your instructor will let you know when he thinks you're ready to land - trust him !!!!!
Hopefully he shoukd start getting you as you fly more to do approaches and then slowly coming in lower and lower to fly over the runway but not actually landing and pulling off until one day you'll be so low and slow that he actually lets you go ahead and land it but don't rush into that it'll come.

I agree with Witterings. That's how my first landing went. I just kept flying with instructors, flying lower and slower until one time he said "go ahead and land."
Could I have landed before he said that? probably... but there is no harm in all the additional practice getting lined up and steady with the right speed.. I have no doubt it was a real money saver in the long run

It's my opinion that the simulator really helps while learning. I know it helped me out on the ground control (taxi and take off) as much as it did in the air. Combined with real flying you'll be soloing in no time. My first plane was an Avistar too, it' awesome plane, I still love it.

Good luck and have fun

Ken gave you sound advice. It's tough for an instructor to gauge your skill levels in only a couple of flights. Give him the benefit of the doubt and follow his lead. You will be landing soon enough, and once you have solo'ed, you will be grateful for the instructor's time. You will have many many more successful landings after that, believe me.

Sideline, I worked over in Sallisaw for a couple of weeks when I was in the Coast Guard.. yep, in the Coast Guard. I worked with the Army Corps of Engineers down near the damn.

I do this a lot with my students, and there is a great reason for doing it. I have found with students that if I tell them before they go up that we're going to try a landing they have too much time to think about it. Then they start trying to remember everything, make sure everything is perfect, and get worked up for the landing. When it comes time to actually land they will usually be a total mess and nowhere near ready to land. On the other hand, I just let them fly approaches and I tell them to listen to what I am telling them on the approach. Then when they are lined up on a good approach I'll tell them to go ahead and let it set down and land. By suprising them with it they don't have any time to think about it and they land with no problems at all. After that it's usually a piece of cake, since they know that they can land the plane they don't get worked up over any more.

Ken

I watched an instructor do the same thing ,yesterday . Had the guy fly 6 or 7 approaches and then had him make his first landing .Did a very nice job of it too. You could see a boost in his confidence.
For the next 3 flights , it was landings taking off and touch-n-goes . It really help him , he is not so afraid of the ground anymore.

flying is easy , landing is hard. Don't get ahead of your self.
I set the TX on the ground after i trim for level flight, when teaching my kid to fly.
To get him out of the fear of flying.

My instuctor bacially handed me the TX when the model was 5 ft of the deck on final approch.
To get me over the knee jerk.lol The plan landed itself.

it's doing it consistanctly. Flying over the flight line in a straight path, doing proceedure turns
from left and right. lower and lower. Then you'll get a cross wind going eventually.
I was taught to land via the trim.lol When i get to landing, my instructor will instruct me.
There's little hints, he'll give me. it's easier to landing when the model is flying away from me.
Slow down and go around a couple of times so your speed preception adjust.
take off up wind and land down wind.
There's a fence the gose around my flying field..everyone cliped it or met it.
There also depth perception oneside has darker shadows.
I have a better chance if I walk towards the fence as the model is making it's last trun of the proceed trun.
This way the model will be flying away from me as it lands, also I won't over shoot.

however landing a flat bottom floater is onething. Landing a brick is another.
Make small transition, if you go low wing from high wing
Go low wing with a straight cord wing such as a 4* as a second model.
Otherwise you'll have a better understnading of a snap roll if you get a Cap232 or a modle with simular wings.
War birds will also have a heavier wing load than a cap or extra

Stick with the Avistar for a while to practice your landings with your instructor. The landing gear on those are really forgiving and you won't feel too bad if you goof a landing, damaging the plane. After you've got that down to a science I'd go for the Mustang PTS. It's a fantastic flying plane with no real bad tendencies. I actually think it flies better than the Avistar, plus it looks cool! The only piece of advice I can think of is to take off the speed brakes on the landing gear. They seem to force you to run the engine harder to keep up your airspeed.
Also, I'd pick up something like a Zagi for a 2nd or 3rd plane. They're pretty simple to fly, mostly right stick, and are very exciting. Plus, they're easy to land. You just turn off the power and keep the wings level. They'll practically land themselves. Good luck!

When I'm coaching people I like to have them experience and become confident with flying at the bottom edge of the flight envelope before getting near the ground.

I prefer learners to be able to identify, predict and automatically recover from stalls before letting them get cocky near the ground... I have them flying as slow as they can, at height, pulling tight turns and getting used to "feeling" the aeroplane near the stall - low speed, nose high attitudes, mushy controls etc.

I'm very old school though and I built all my own models and thus it was a big deal to crash them, so I tried my hardest to avoid unneccessary destruction. I still do it now with new models - I take off, trim out, then go up high and stall it clean, dirty, straight, in a turn, power on/off etc etc. That way if the engine dies on me during the rest of the test flight I am at least familiar with the aeroplanes limitations and give myself the best chance of a successful landing. Again, this is me trying to preserve a big warbird I've spend a few years building from a plan.

Ultimately, stick with your instructor as he'll know when you're ready. RCKen's technique of announcing the landing at the last minute is great - no time to panic

As for Corsairs and Mustangs - lovely aeroplanes. I started as a teenager and thought I'd cope. I built a couple of fairly hot scale models - and smashed them all sooner or later. It was nothing short of heart breaking. Looking back it was all wasted effort and those models would still be here now if only I'd got more experience first.

To me, training to fly these awesome scale models is more than just having a high and low wing trainer under your belt - it's about getting a good few years experience of just flying in general. It takes time to see what the gremlins will throw at you, from engine failures to radio failures etc. That experience is something money can't buy - and it's gutwrenching to learn the hard way using your pride and joy.

Also - building. So many people try their best to make a decent go of a kit or plans built model, but inexperience of building leads of silly mistakes that simply frustrate, spoil expensive models and makes any consciencious budding modeller kick themselves.

So, sincerely, if you really want to learn to fly, and your ultimate aim (as mine was and still is) to fly hugely rewarding scale models of WW2 fighters - build yourself a few low wing sport models. From kits and plans ideally.

ARTF is great to get you in the air, but you learn nothing about construction and the learning curve on the Corsair will almost certainly be too much for most. If nothing else it'll be untidy and unslightly. And probably covered with Profilm. No offence - but there's nothing worse than seeing a big warbird covered in iron on films [:'(]

A SIG 4*60 or even an Astrohog if you like the classic look would be brilliant - or have a browse through plans retailers and pick something simple. It wont take that much longer to build a simple box fuselage low wing sport model from balsa, ply and a set of plans than it would to assemble an ARTF - since most of the worst bit is all the fiddly bits like fitting radio gear etc.

It's really rewarding building your own, and it will develop skills with a scalpel, razor saw, razor plane and sanding block that will DEFINATELY make your life sooooo much easier when you build your Corsair.

Bit of a long term plan, I know - but there you go

One last point - many people will criticise older models such as the Astrohog because they have certain characteristics which make them fly less than perfectly. An Astrohog, won't for example, flatter you with knife edge flight in the same way modern ARTF aerobatic models will. IMHO, those "mannerisms" are exactly what you need when you're learning to fly warbirds - because warbirds do not fly perfect - far from it - they have characteristics, mannerisms and bad habits by the bucket load. If you're used to flying planes which have little quirks like these - you stand a much better chance of success with aircraft like the Corsair

what he said

SOP for training is to teach the student how to detect trim problems and fix 'em. the process is the same each and every time he flies ANY plane including all the fun new ones that will come allong

You'll be ready for a war bird once you no longer rely upon the dihedral to level out the plane. I fly mine with, or without dihedral the same way and I barely notice it's even there, well, except for when the wind kicks in. I don't reccomend the p51 to be your first, it's wing design is inherently unstable so it's going to do crazy stuff with little direct input on your end, that's what makes it a good fighter. I found the p40 to be more stable, almost trainer like in my opinion, mainly due to the wing design and it has a bit larger control surfaces in the aft section which gives you greater control, especially with recovering it from radical banking.

Thank you all so very much for all of the awesome replies!!!!! I already at home here and look forward to my time here with all of you