what would be a good warbird to start with? I like electric, I am just starting and have flown my cub a bit and I am building a top flite corsair .60, however I was wondering what would be a good starter warbird to practice with. I like the older planes, even an older style bi-plane would be fun, It does not necasarily need to be fast, as much as easily controlled. Any tips will be considered. Thank you

if you want to use the engine you will need for the corsair than a Hangar-9 60 size ARF would be a good start there pretty forgiving not like a trainer more like a sport plane with warbird looks.
with the help of a instructor,they can be flown as a second plane, after getting the trainer dialed in,and with some help,the H-9 planes are still point and shoot with little or no self recovery,but contrary to some there good solid flyers when you get used to them,the 2 I have I could have flown them as second planes.
there both more stable than the plane I used as a second plane, I did get some help flying and trimming the first H-9 plane I have a P-40,the mustang I trimmed and maidened myself,a great flyer both I power with OS 91 4strokes,they can be powered by electric if your heading that way for power.
one thing to consider when your powering a larger plane like a 60 size warbird with batterys, is the power draw and battery requirements, the batts are not cheap theres a lot of power needed to fly them and if you expect to get a few flights per flying day than you will need more than one set unless you don't mind waiting by the charger to finish charging that one set you have.
its why I use nitro fuel to power my planes.

RMPROB, bigtim presented very good advice. To elaborate a bit more I offer this additional. If an airplane flies relatively slow and is easy to control, then it must be relatively LIGHT. That means it must have a light wing loading. If it does than it will be as bigtim stated, more like a sport plane. There are some so called "warbirds" out there that are just that, a sport plane with cosmetics applied. You will notice a non-scale wing area and a wing thickness far beyond a scale section. These will get you flying the "looks" you want while getting the advanced stick-time you need to increase your proficiency, which is a big step in itself, just going from a high-wing to a low wing.
As far as electric vice glow/gas, I cannot offer you much there. I am a glow/gas person and too old to change. I have seen enough big electrics burn from exploding big li-pos. You other folks can have that problem, thank you!

Best of luck to you.

What if I went to smething like this to get used to the flying characteristics of the plane? All I have flown so far is a parkzone j3 brushless cub, so I am just looking for a little step, as you guys said going from a top wing to a bottom wing is a big difference, especially the corsairs gullwing set-up. Thanks again for your assistance!


http://www.horizonhobby.com/Products...ProdID=GWS1065

If you are looking for a park flyer then stick to the Parkzone Warbirds. The best is the Spitfire. It has three wire zervo's and uses the zx-10 system ( same crappy style transmitter though) You can easily upgrade with receiver, Brushed ESC, and 11.1v lipo battery.

Parkzone also has the Folke Wulf, and the P51D mustang.

All are great and easy to fix.

RPMROB's corsair is nice but very fragile.

Goodluck

If you're going to a glow engine (different from your electric experience) and a .60 size Corsair (also different) I would suggest you get something like an Avistar, to get used to glow and a faster plane.

After mastering the Avistar, I would suggest something like a Pulse, or an Extra, to get you into a faster low wing taildragger.

After mastering that plane, the .60 Corsair would be less of a leap.

Just my 2¢ worth,
Dave Olson

If I do go with a parkzone plane, can I add landing gear? that's the main thing I need to work on right now! I seem to do just fine in the air, it's coming down that's the hard part and I would like something I can continue to practice landing with!

from what I have seen of the parkzone planes, adding gear would take some work,needing to add a solid mount for the gear in the wing since the foam construction is not the strongest base to handle the stress of the wire landing gear,the ones I have seen do not have the strongest wings and are built to be light weight .

hear is a reality check, your not going to be ready for the Top Flight Corsair, flying a parkzone plane it doesn't transfer as far as the skills needed,a real warbird is heavy, needs to be flown into the landing, and more likely than not has flaps,to control landing approach speeds .
you might as well invest in a simulator and fly the advanced planes there to increase your proficency with the sticks,learning the basics of flaps,retractable landing gear,using the rudder,and landing a fast heavy plane, and you will also have a large variety of planes to try with the sim, for the price of the parkzone plane.
you will need to learn basic landing skills, and when you do get these wired on a sim you can ramp up the wind and the enviroment and challenge yourself without having to pay heavy dollars to replace your crashes.

if your serious about learning to fly advanced planes like warbirds then your going to have to strive for that type of plane,a sig something extra or something in that type,a tail dragger,light weight so it flys easy and doesn't sink out of the sky, so you can transfer that sim time into real world practice,it doesn't matter what power source you chose as long as its enough to power the plane your flying.

the reason I recomended the Hangar-9 planes was its in the general size range of the kit your working towards finishing,same power requirements,retractable landing gear and is alot lighter so its more forgiving in the air,with good slow flying charictaristics,that means the wings don't want to tip when your coming in slow for a landing,something the Top flight doesn't have,you are going to have to be on your toes to fly that one.

between the simulator and help from my flying club members flying warbirds has become my prefered type of plane,my engine choice for 60 size warbirds is a OS 91-120 4stroke great power source for the size plane,it really depends on your skill set and your budget a typical warbird like your TF is going to cost 500-1,000$ depending on your finishes and weather or not you chose retractable landing gear, a arf like the H-9 closer to the lower range, a kit build towards the top end.

just some information and suggestions to get you heading in the right direction.

I don't think I am ready for a plane like you are recomending. I have spent a lot of time on simulators and I can fly just about anything on there except those helicopters, I can hover and do alot of stunts and 3-d stuff on the sims, however I am still getting used to a real plane, I am looking for a small step, and going from a top wing to a bottom wing, I was told that there is a big difference between these two.

there's definatly a big difference between a high wing trainer type plane Vs. a low wing sport plane,dihedrial adds stability and has self recovery since the fuse is hanging below the wing, the weight is below the wing adding stability.
there's little or no difference in the flying traits, in a wing with no dihedrial,symetrical airfoil plane, high or low wing there point and shoot planes and have no self recovery.

the pace of your flying is up to you here's what I did.
I started with a Nextar ARF.
built a Gizmo kit the red wing tail dragger flew the heck out of it OS46AX powered will do anything I want in the air unlimited vertical.
Hangar-9 P-40 powered by OS 91fs.
while I was learning to fly the kit, and ARF warbird,I built the Top Flight Spitfire also 91fs.
I was having so much fun with the Warhawk, I got the P-51 Mustang what do ya know 91fs.
I am almost done with a Top flight P-47 Thunderbolt OS 120fs.
my latest project is a Focke Wolf 190A8 I will be starting soon.
my shop has been freezing and the surfing has been good so little work has gotten done on the P-47 model the last couple of weeks soon though.

it didnt take all that long to learn to fly these planes with some help from some great club members, and some sim practice if your already doing 3D hovering on the sim(I can't do that),being ready is relative things are different in the real world than the sim thats why you should get some help from a club instructor to advance and learn the proper way to fly these planes.

I started doing models when I was young 10yrs old,no sim,hard to find instructors willing to help,and have only been back flying for about 5yrs so it doesn't take that long if you want it I am 44 now and glad to be back at it going to teach the kids they will be tearing it up in no time,they sure do well with the Play station good luck whatever way you chose

I was going to add landing gear to mine. I went and bought the parkzone Trojan T-28 landing gear and some light ply wood but never got around to installing it. To tell you the truth i like the belly landing. I fly in a park that is all grass that is meduim length grass ( about 3 inches) so small landing gear does not work very well.

If you really want landing gear there are many people on this forum who have done it and at least one of them even put retracts on it.

They are great planes. THey fly awsome, they are durable, they are easy to fix, and there are tons of parts available.
Goodluck

If I get the parkzone spitfire that I am thinking about, would the brushless motor, esc, and lipo out of my parkzone cub be able to go in it? also would there be any performance increase if it did?

You can try to see if it fits on the firewall. I put in my own receiver (ar6100) and installed a brushed esc (25 amp) and use a 11.1v 1500mah 15c battery. I kept the existing motor and it flys awsome. The plane itself is a large step up from the cub due to the aeliron control ( but no rudder ). The speed is good and the control is good. I keep it on high rate.

Try is stock and if you feel the need for more speed then by all means GO CRAZY!!!!!!!!!![sm=bananahead.gif]