Hi everyone, first post here.

I bought a GWS Slow Stick and GWS radio a little while back. Put it together, and went through a few sets of landing gear -- it's enjoyable but it's often a little breezy around here and it doesn't seem to do too well in 10+ mph winds. So, my question is, is there another plane that's inexpensive, electric, pretty easy to fly, and a little more capable of handling breezy days? I love the looks of the GWS A-10, but I read that one has some trouble with wind, too.

Also, wanted to get your opinion on ailerons. I've flown tons of flight sims since I was a kid, as well as a lot of FMS lately, and I feel as if I'm missing them when I'm flying the slow stick. Is it a Really Bad Idea for a beginner to fly an aileron equipped plane, or could I get away with it?

I have access to a r/c field (a former small aircraft airfield that shut down years ago, and a local club got permits to fly there), as well as a lot of smaller spots I can fly (nothing too quick).

Thanks!

I'm hardly in a position to instruct, but I can share my opinions. Flight sims get you about 35% trained for what might actually happen in the field. Until they come up with one that has "additional 15 mph wind gusts". "clump of dirt on the runway" , "engine quits suddenly" and "downdraft on approach" settings on a randomizer they won't mimic reality. They are great for getting you used to the transition between your aircraft coming and going. Now if you had to buy new software and load it every time you crashed it would help with the presure and nervousness of putting a creation of your own blood, sweat and tears up in the air and hoping you remembered to recharge everything and properly pre-flight check all control surfaces, fasteners, fittings, etc. etc.

I'm not a big fan of electrics, so I don't know a good one to choose for "outdoors." (Just pickin' on ya). Anything you can get that weighs over six pounds with a 20 oz./in^2 wing loading should do well in 15 knot winds.

20 plus years ago I learned to fly 2-channel on elevator and rudder, and you landed when the gas ran out - no throttle. Made it a challenge to be in the right place to land when the motor stopped. So, you went high when you anticipated being near the end and flew it as a glider for as long as you could. One chance at landing. That's the way I use my simulator. Take it up, kill the engine, land it on the strip.

As far as ailerons. I see no problem in learning with them from the start. Learning on a trainer with enough dihedral to bank on rudder only won't gain you much when you "move up" to an aeroplane with flat, symmetrical wings that only yaws when you feed in rudder. You'll need to learn ailerons anyway. Might as well learn it while you have an instructor on the buddy-box instead of later when you are on your own. (We all want to get off that umbillical ASAP, after all). If you're on tour own already - just don't tey to use ailerons to change direction on the ground.

I haven't flown the sims myself, but I agree that if they don't have that random factor that they can't take you all the way. Though I have seen guys come out to the field with a lot of simulator time and no real stick time and advance very very quickly.

A lot of learning to fly is getting over the fear of crashing. For some guys, the sim helps because they get the reflexes and the confidence. For other guys, the sim doesn't help as much, as they get a bad case of nerves when it's a "real" plane.

I don't have any specific advice for an electric trainer, I'm new to electrics. But the advice above about needing a 6lb plane isn't really true. I've flown .15 powered 2.1lb planes with wingloadings in the 12oz/sqft range in 30+mph winds with no problem at all. We've flown combat contests that way too, it's actually funny to watch at times, when everyone breaks from upwind to downwind at the same time.

Personally, I think a lot of guys are overly afraid of the wind, it really isn't a big deal to fly in high winds. You just have to be a bit more careful when you are close to the ground. I change my landding approaches in high winds.

Up higher, it usually isn't a problem. Espeically once you figure out where the rotors at your field are (if you have any). As long as you don't make a habit of flying in to the rotors while low and slow, you'll be fine.

So, what do you need to handle the wind? You need a max airspeed that is at least 20-30mph faster than the wind. Yes, you can fly with less, but it stops being fun when you have to struggle that hard to get upwind. That's really it. That, and a lot of practice. Most of the stuff you hear about planes having bad habits while turning upwind or downwind are 99% pilot perception, because things look really different from the ground in high winds, even though the airplane does not see anything from steady wind at all.

It's not a true analogy, but if you are flying a model that is, say, 1/8 scale of full-sized aeroplane, then a 30 mph wind causes the same reactions on the model as a 240mph wind would on the full size. It's actually worse because of air density, but there are a dozen other factors.

Airfoil shape has as much to do with it as weight/wing loading or motor power. And as you say, being able to keep up speed relative to the wind is important, too. I have a little Fighterbird electric and there are times it is a battle to come back "upstream" on windy days.

Sounds like you may be ready for some more excitement and a higher performance airplane. Why not check out the RC club and see if they have a trainer that they will let you try a flight or 2 on with the buddy box. 1 flight will answer a lot your questions right away!

Actually, this is so far from being accurate that it will cause you more harm than good when flying. If it were accurate, then you could assume your stall speed would scale too, but it doesn't work that way at all. What you are talking about is the Reynolds number.

In a steady wind, the windspeed is a non-factor. There are only two issues you have to deal with that are specific to the fact that we pilot our planes from the ground looking up rather than from inside the plane.

The first is having a high enough max airspeed to get back to the field. Usually, not a problem with glow or gas, but some slow electrics and some gliders can run in to trouble here.

And second, the airplanes ground speed can be very different from what we are used to. We are used to judging airspeed based on ground speed, but when you throw in a high wind, most guys get their airspeed all wrong, with predictable results. Where you usually see it is a plane traveling downwind tries to turn cross wind and drops from the sky. The problem here isn't the wind, it's the pilot. The pilot saw the plane going fast, but didn't realize that the airspeed was actually quite low going in to the turn. When flying in high winds, trust your sticks, not your eyes.

However, the main problem on windy days really is turbulence near the ground. And small planes are usually affected more than larger ones because smaller windshears cover a larger portion of the flying surfaces and lower airspeeds mean that any windshear is going to be a larger percentage of the airflow over the wing. I hope that makes sense. If not, I'll clarify later.

So, when flying in high winds, the less time you spend a low airspeeds and close to the ground, in turbulent air, the better.

Some fields are located such that "smooth" air is hard to find on windy days, others have lots of clean air in even the heaviest winds.

It sounds like you need to go and get a glow airplane and find someone to take you up on it. Ailerons are cool for a beginner, most all trainers have them. As for planes that handle more wind than the slow stick, most electric planes will not do well in windy conditions. There are some exceptions, but electrics are so light that the wind generally knocks them around a lot. Hope this helps some.

It looks like maybe I should get a glow plane next. However, I'm completely unfamiliar with nitro engines, so was thinking about going ahead and get that r/c truck I've wanted with a nitro engine -- that way I can learn how to run and tune them on something that won't die a gruesome death when the engine stops running

So, I'll fly the Slow Stick a while longer and look into getting a glow trainer type plane after that.. thanks for everyone's input!

Don't be too afraid of the engine quitting. When I was learning, some of my best landings were deadstick. Really.


It is a good idea to get a little help with the engine, though they really aren't hard to get running right most of the time. Judging by the number of guys in the LHS getting their car engines tuned for them by the store experts, I'm not sure the same is true for car engines . (never had a car, so I wouldn't know if it would help or not).