alrighty i've been flying tricycle gear high wings for 3 years now. I figured i'd post in here for help on the Japanese Zero. It is a taildragger and low wing obviously. Any tips on flying these. PS nothing that requires money im only 15!!!!

I just turned 18, so I know what you mean about the money. What plane is it? I mean, there are a lot of warbirds that are more true-to-scale than others. Either way, there are a couple of tricks to remember:

Don't floor it from idle, you'll snap the plane...whether it be on take-off or after a slow-pass. The plane will do half a snap roll and be in mucho trouble. Get to the top of the runway, and slowly increase the throttle. The plane will start rolling, and slowly gaining speed. You'll probably have to feed in some right-rudder because of a whole bunch of different factors rolling and yawing the plane to the left. Once the tail lifts, most of that negative left turning/yawing aspect will go away. Make sure that the plane stays on the ground for a bit longer, and then what happens next depends on the plane. Most planes will require a touch of up-elevator to fly off of the runway, but there are some that will just take off by themselves (kind of like a trainer). Because of the angle of the landing gear normally caused by retracts, and the small wheels normally with retracts, warbirds love to nose-over. While you're starting your take-off roll, keep just enough up-elevator to keep the tail to the ground. After your plane starts moving, it's much less likely to get caught on grass and tip-over. In fact, get off of the elevator after about 10-15ft of roll because you could accidentally lift-off before your plane is ready for it.

The most common mistakes are as follows: taking off too early, trying to land stalled, slamming the throttle.
Just remember to get off of the elevator once it starts moving. Also, remember that you have to FLY the plane to the ground. You can't have it near stalling when you try to land. Chop the throttle, then give it a two or three clicks of throttle. The only other thing to remember is to slowly increase throttle settings.

A trick I've always used is to take 3-4 minutes to get used to the plane...then I get high up, and stall it by putting the engine at idle and making sure the plane flies level (kind of like entering an IMAC spin or a harrier). I see how fast it's going when it stalls, what it feels like on the verge of stalling, and how violently it stalls.

I know it sounds like a lot, but go over it in your head (mostly the slow throttle settings, the slow take-off roll, and practice-stalls). Do a "dry-run" in the plane you feel most comfortable with, but have an uneventful flight (don't do anything you won't do on your maiden). That's what I've always done, and I've had pretty successful maiden flights.

If this is his only second airplane, then a warbird like the Zero would not be a good choice. I would recommend a Hangar 9 Pulse XT 40. I am 15 as well, and its a lot of fun to fly. Warbirds are harder to fly and not a good choice for a second plane. Just trying to help.

If he's flown high-wing planes for 3 years, I don't think that he's inexperienced. I agree that a Pulse is awesome to fly, since I too have one. If he really has 3 years flying time, then he's ready for it. I had been flying for less than 6 months when I flew my first warbird. And it was a heavy, high wing-loading fire-breathing warbird that forgave no errors. I don't know how well he flies, but I wasn't commenting on if he should. I just gave him some keys to success.

That being said, I agree with you in the fullest. It's much harder to watch a warbird go in than most other birds. Obviously, watching a 52% Edge go in is more painful than watching a Parkzone Spitfire go in...but that's apples to oranges. If that's his second plane, I'm extremely against him flying a scale warbird. Warbirds are the easiest planes to crash, but the hardest to fly.

A little more insight on your flying skills would be helpful so that we can better advise you.

The tips here are really good, esp the one about not flying a warbird as your first low wing. If you want a cheap but fun first low wing tail dragger then get a world models skyraider Mk2 at something like 70 bucks they are cheap and most likely will run on the setup on your trainer. They are easy to fly and a good first tail dragger and low wing. The again I have been flying my spitfire since only 4 months of solo and doing it well, so you may be able to fly it, then it depends on what the guys at your club think.

James

Crashmaster92,

I replied to your post about the Rebel kit and since you are asking about a low wing tail dragger - my first one was a FourStar 40 that I built from a kit. You may want to try building that before your Rebel. It was a very easy kit to build and I have a build thread for it here: [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=5599424]SIG Fourstar 40 (4*) Build Thread[/link]

Good luck!

The Rebel I am currently will be my first airplane. rwright. as you know i inherited all of my 10 airplanes from my instructor who passed away. now i have 4 unbuilt kits and 10 airplanes. I have an Avistar that is ARF but i wanted to take on an actual kit. Its going real well. The other reason i went with the 1955 Rebel is because it was the smallest he had. (Approx.)(Length: 36 in. Wingspan 48 in.) and for all of you dont know the Rebel is a kit from DeBolt/Live Wire in 1955

oh yeah i forgot. The Rebel doesnt have any aileron control. just throttle, elevator, and rudder. LOL