How do you, as a beginner, determine that the advice your being given here on this Beginner's Forum, is sound advice? If I were a beginner, this would seem like the million dollar question to me. Out of the many responses which the typical question generates here on the Beginners Forum. I see many responses which should never be posted, as the poster is completely wrong in his opinions!

When you go to the flying field to learn how to fly, it is a far better idea to listen to who the fliers suggest is a good instructor, observe their abilities and if they are available to teach you, you hook up with and listen to what they have to say. Having done some instructing and understanding the process involved, I would get angry, and naturally should have, when someone else starts stepping all over my instruction process! I am very careful not to get involved in other instructors students, as you are usurping the teachings they have in place! There are many ways to skin a cat, however, to skin your first one, you need to have one instructor tell you how he does it.

You guys who come on here, asking questins need to know there are many great people here who truly are experts in this hobby. There are also many enthuisiastic people who can come across as experts, who are not!

I learned a huge amount from this forum when I first began to fly.

I know what you mean. Some people are truly trying to be helpful but are wrong. Some people are just trying to troll and start problems on the forums. And others are just ignorant. But for the most part the advice given on here is great advice.


When I first started I tended to follow the moderator's advice. I know Minnflyer was a great help.

Once I got bit by the airplane bug I poured over these pages. I didn't necessarily put all my faith in one thread. If you read through enough threads you can tell who knows what they are talking about and who don't.


9 times out of 10 if someone posts something that is wrong someone will correct them very quickly!

I know exactly what you mean Mode One. As chief instructor at my club I constantly have to watch for the "experts" that constantly try to get at the students. They try to get them to over-tune or mis-tune the engines to the verge of burning them up or not run at all. Over-complicate systems with useless/hazardous mixes and un-needed purchase that simply run up costs.

On that note, any suggestions to spend money on incidence meters or any other control measurement tools is frivolous for a beginner with a trainer. Sure if they want to spend money to spend it but these items are unnecessary IMO. All of the kits I've build describe how to trim your plane without them.

Also hear some bold statements at the field... I heard a person write off Futaba 3004s saying they were all junk for 40 size planes. Right.

Some people also seem to have a hard time simply saying, "I don't know" or just resisting the temptation to throw in some kinda comment to get their 2¢ in even if it's wrong.

This one was a good one... dude at my field said that he had good luck flying electric but not glow. Thought to myself... where is the major difference if they are both built and trimmed correctly? He fired up his glow plane and took off... from the point of take-off, the plane made a large loop and augured into our pit area at WOT. The guy simply said, "See? Glow planes are just junk." I was thinking of other words with expletives since I was about 10ft from the impact area. Don't think he remembered to do a pre-flight... ignorant. These kinds of folks should not talk to beginners and should seek to take the training class again. I was a beginner at the time but exercised enough common sense to write this guy off as an unreliable source.

Increasing to WOT will not unnecessarily save your plane.

somegeek

As Wings said. For the most part, especially if it may create a dangerous situation, others will speak out and correct an innacurate post.
Alot of questions asked and answered don't have a cut in stone answer and are more a matter of opinion. what prop should I use, what engine, what's the best trainer, ect....
I certainly agree an instructor is by far the way to go and his advice should be listened to first and foremost.
That said there are, Sadly, many beginners that come on here that will not get an instructor and this is one of the few resources that they can rely on.
I do challenge the original poster to point out a couple of examples of where the "the poster is completely wrong in his opinions" that may create any real problems and was not corrected by others.
I personally think this forum does a great job of self policing.

I agree. One of the better quality forum communities I know of.

somegeek

Thanks for thr nice words Wings. I'm glad you found my advice helpful.

I (As well as several others) try to use a no-nonsense approach to helping beginners. Like somegeek said, there is an awful lot of stuff out there that the beginner simply doesn't need, so I try to keep them from spending time and money on them.

But even we "Experts" can disagree on things. That doesn't make us wrong, just in disagreement.

Which is why I want to disagree somewhat with the theory of "Let one instructor do the instructing". In fact, when I instruct a new student, one of the first things I do is to have him go up with several instructors.

Why? Because everyone is different. Every instructor has his own style of teaching, and every student picks up things better one way than another.

What is important is that each instructor teaches the student to fly the basic racetrack pattern, but as far as technique goes, let the student find what works for them.

Case in point: When I learned how to fly, I was told that when the plane is coming toward you, (to keep right-left orientation) you should turn your back to the plane and look at it over your shoulder. This worked very well for me so it was the method I always taught. But speaking with others here on RCU, I learned that many people use the "Point the stick at the low wing" method.

My first reaction to this was, "I think looking over the shoulder is a better method" but then I saw how many people learned with this method and it worked well for them and it proved my own point: which is that different instructors use diferent methods, and students will use whichever method works best for them.

So the trick is to expose a beginner to different methods so that he may find the one he likes.

One example of bad advise was that I have heard a few people say that neither of these methods should be used because it is a crutch. This is nonsense. These are TOOLS, not crutches. It's like saying a calculator is a crutch when you can use a slide-rule instead.

No tool used for instruction is bad. Give the student as many as you have and let him pick the ones he wants to use.

Exactly.

One or two "corrections" may represent nothing more than a differnce of opinion, a misunderstood response or question, or a simple error.

Many corrections, may point to a suggestion that is totally off.

Minnflyer, I would recommend a beginner go up with a few instructors if they can, also. It allows them to find the most compatable person to help them learn. However, I think once the instructing begins, other instructors should only give input when asked and should really attempt to stay out of it.

I would do more instructing now-a-days; but, no one wants to learn Mode One anymore! This is too bad, as Mode One really is a viable method of flying.

While I agree with this I've seen this cause problems for very young flyers.

Whem my then 10 YR old daughter started out with one instructor, she did quite well as she was picking up every proceedure and direction he gave her.

A few sessions later she was paired with another instructor.

This lead to frustration, desperation and some tears, as from her perspective everything she was doing was now wrong. She wanted to quit after that.

Kids have a hard time dealing with a moving target.

After being repaired with the original instructor life was good again.

I felt very bad for the second instructor, he was both good and knowledgeable, but just did everything differently than the first. He felt compelled to apologize, but he did NOTHING wrong ( I let him know this... )...

This forum has been awesome for me. There are people who continually give me advice, and most of them have lots of planes and years of flying - you can check out their profile! Among some, Missleman, Opjose, CGRetired, BigEdMustava to name a few (and many others, sorry if I can't remember names =)

I joined a club. It's like an extra $36 insurance. Again, there are guys with lots of planes and lots of years, and they are willing and eager to get me in the air, even if it is just so they can try to shoot me down in combat! (They've got another thing coming, I PROMISE!)

I guess I'd like to close this out with the biggest THANK YOU to the above mentioned; this is an expensive and passionate hobby, and I live in a place where there is not a lot of places to get equipment or advice, so you have all been a huge help. I feel very confident with the equipment you have helped me decide on buying, and the advice I have gotten toward the first steps in getting in the air.

Thanks. Your friend,

Garfield

i can't agree more with orangekat. i'm also i a very remote location with no srs clubs around and i depend only on this forum if i have questions. i've only been in flying for two years now i have a LOT to learn. like garfield said if you ever run across posts where there are issues and debates just check out the profiles and see who has the experience. mind you to those experienced guys i'm sure some of my questions sound kinda lame and....DUHHH! but hey i'm new and i just dont' know it. especially the guys that garfield mentioned plus bruce and rcken.......you guys have been awesome and just reading all the posts and threads about anything is all that i have to learn from and i've only messed up one plane and fixed that too. so yeah, thanx alot for all your advice guys and i don't think anybody has to worry about getting false information because chances are it will be corrected on the next reply.

This is a definite possibility. Now imagine that she got that second instructor, first - That alone is a good arguement for trying a few and sticking with the one you like.

The funny thing is that the second instructor would have been better suited to her demeanor. I think she would have done better starting with him first.

Kids tend to be concrete about these things and changing the style of instruction, was too frustrating for her.

Thankfully she went back in towards the end of that season.