Hello,

My girlfriend would like to join me in my addiction of rc airplanes (surprisingly) and I am torn between getting her a glow plane or an electric. I fly both and have very many planes; however at this moment I only have low wing warbird nitros and low wing electrics along with some ducted fans none of my planes will suite her for a first plane. She is extremely proficient on my realflight 3.5. I am torn between the two because electrics are somewhat cheaper, as I have many lipos, and are much easier to repair and transport, but they IMO are harder for a beginner to fly. Nitro is easier to fly but a little more expensive and harder to transport. Also Ive never buddy boxed with anyone and I have a dx7 and a JR 7 the receivers for my dx7 are expensive is it possible to use the dx7 as the buddy box or should I just use the 2.4 as the instructor radio? So if anyone could give me some suggestions as to what would be the most cost effective and safest bet to get my girlfriend in the air Id appreciate it. I am not super familiar with the current trainers of the day but I do know the HZ supercub is a great plane but Id rather get her on an aileron trainer as she seems accustomed on the sim to ailerons.

THANKS!

My two cents ....I would stick with glow and get her introduced to an instructor at a club in your area. Have her Join AMA. then look at getting her own plane, I have a strong feeling in pride and ownership. Help her with the basics on the ground, and let someone who is qualified to teach do so. I have been working with my 11 year old daughter who is new to flying as well. We are building her a goldberg eagle that will be her airplane. I am sure that I could teach her to fly, but I am going to leave it up to an instructor at the club. Congrats on finding a G/F that is into flying, she sounds like a keeper.

ditto on that, a goldberg eaglet is a great trainer, it uses a 20 size nitro but it is easy to transport also, it is also very easy to build. sounds like you got a keeper for a G/F.

Obviously it's going to depend more on your girlfriend than anything.

I started my wife on an EasyStar. She's now flying an LT-40 and I'm putting together a Dragon Lady and a kit-bashed 4-star for her.

Does your girlfriend mind the noise and mess of the glow engines, or is that not an issue? If she's strong on the simulator, I'd go with a .40 or .60 size glow trainer. You can alwasy "borrow" an engine from one of your existing planes. (and if she digs it, you now have an excuse for a new engine).

Oh, we used a Dx7 for a buddy box with my 72Mhz 9303 with no problems, so you won't have any trouble there, they work either way, as long as the master TX and the RX work together, the buddy box can be either 72Mhz or 2.4Ghz

I am in the same situation with my wife wanting to learn.... Just to get her feet wet I am assembling a GP YardStick 3ch slow flier for her to try out. If she has the desire to do so I will then move onto the bigger stuff and get her in the AMA. I tried to get her into RC cars a few years back but she was very timid on the controls, so I honestly think the slow flier will satisfy her desire to fly with me. It really does depend on your girl friend and what she wants to do. If she is serious about it, get her started the right way with a trainer and an instructor.

You may want to check out some of the PNP or RTF trainer packages.

Since you have battery packs, how about an Electricstar trainer at $199.00 for all but the batteries?

It's a nice decent sized plane and it will fly on LiPo's.

I picked up an Alpha 40 trainer for my daugher and it becaome "her" plane.

The fact that it is her plane added to her enjoyment...

Since you are an experienced flyer, stay away from the 3Ch toys... at worst you'll be able to help her progress, at best she'll put these behind all too quickly.

Why ask us what she wants? Ask HER. My wife wanted to learn and wanted a Spook 96. I'm building it now. If it's HER hobby and not an extension of yours, let her pick her equipment, with competant advice, of course.

Dr.1

I think we need to get Bev in here.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_45...page_36/tm.htm

she is reading very intently...we were planning on taking her to a club to learn we are looking for airplane suggestions for her. She has no preference over electric or glow.....however she does enjoy pink heh....

Whatever you do plane - wise, please do not try to instruct her yourself. You want to remain BF/GF. Let someone else instruct until she solo's. Have you any experience trying to teach a non - driving wife to drive? Can be unpleasant.. Just my 2 cents.

Boy do I agree with you Bingo Field. Tried teaching my to golf. WOW!!!!!! It was either quit teaching or get a divorce. Let someone else teach her.

The worst thing in the world for you to do is try and teach her yourself. I will bet you anything you will have a new girlfriend real soon. Help her on the ground all you can, but when it comes to flying, both of you will enjoy it much more if someone else does the teaching. Just tell her you don't know how to fly good enough to teach her yourself and get an instructor to teach her. She will thank you in the end. I know from experence that it does NOT work.
Ed

Yes I do know this as I tried teaching my last girlfriend to drive a motorcycle.....very very very very VERY bad news. This is not the issue as I already belong to a club and she will be learning here in the early spring at the field with an instructor. The big question is what plane I should start her on we were looking for some suggestions on a good ailerion trainer and opinions between small electric training and glow trainers. Any suggestions on actual planes besides the eaglete ......... trust me this girl could be the one and I want this hobby to bring us together not pull us apart....last time i tried teaching a girl anything i ruined a perfectly good relationship and a perfectly good clutch....heh...

Hi,
does she want to start with a RTF , ARF or build from a kit? I guess most think ARF now days , but there is a certain group of us that like the building also. I have nothing against ARF etc. and am looking at them for future planes.

The problem is I am a senior mechanical engineering student and I have a demanding school schedule and work schedule at Harley Davidson so I dont have time to build kits anymore and she has school and doesn't have the skills (or the patients/desire) to build a kit so ARF's and RTF's are what would work best.

Cant go wrong with the LT 40

SIG Kadet Senior ARF. Its big, its purty, and with a nice 4-stroke its just plain 'ol neato. Besides, she'll enjoy being able to see it.



I envy your problem,

Clay

Wow that plane looks amazing for a trainer I can t wait to show her when she gets off of work!

G-day
that does look like a very nice plane "i want one too"
good luck with everything cheese puddin
happy flying

simmo

How about the Multiplex MiniMag or Magister and they're about to release an Easycub (wonder if that's only 3 channel though) and a Mentor which could be worth looking at, certainly their planes are extremely durable which makes them good for beginners and easy to repair whilst still flying extremely well.

Yes, and doesn't the Minimag come with 3CH but has the ailerons already set up so you can add the other servos for 4 channel?

Making it much less hassle for the newbie to upgrade than say the HZ SuperCub????

Now we are looking at the multiplex products!

TRY to let her pivk from a LIST of known good planes. She needs to get that I am deciding to actually pick and fly feeling. A list of good planes from the club instructors would make you a VERY supportive guy and shift any problems to the instructor.
Telling her You want her to succede with her OWN plane is KEY.
Get the club inspector to check out the plane & OK it.
Do you see a trend here ???
You are supporting her everystep. But will NOT be the bad guy when there is a KERBOOM.

"" You really care so much about my learning to fly, that only the most experienced people will do ? ""

Yes.

"Sweet man."

Show her RCKens list http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_4537845/tm.htm and see what she says.

If you are now looking at Multiplex virtually eveyone knows how well the Aromaster flies and the quality of it but one my main reasons for recommending their products is the durability.
The MiniMag I've flown into a fence twice, once trying to land on a strip that was too narrow and cross wind took it into a fence post, simply put some white duct tape over the indent so the aerodynamics were the same and to make it look better, 2nd time I started using bigger batteries and without realising where it was bigger it was covering the ESC which caused it to overheat and cut out, did a deadstick as best I could but ran out of runway, virtually no damage at all apart from had to glue the motor mount back in. Was letting a friend have a go on a deserted beach and they crashed it thought it would be totalled form the distance, maybe was just lucky but literally picked it up checked it over and ready to fly again.
My Acromaster I changed the battery cut out from soft to hard, had literally done a low pass the length of the strip at speed, went for a hard vertical pull up at the end of the pass and the battery failed. didn't have enough time to re-arm the ESC before it crunched into the ground, the second bad one I went to trim the ailerons and the trim tab on the TX got stuck putting the trim to full right, as you can imagine it was flying like a pig with bricks strapped to its back and came down nose 1st into the ground, the only damage was some cosmetic to the underside of the fuselage whcih a bit of CA, new prop and I was flying again !!!!!!

Opjose,

As you say you can install the ailerons but use only 3 channel on the MiniMag to start with, if this person is going to have an experienced pilot teaching buddy boxing them then they're probably fine to start with 4 channel and aileron straight off the bat anyway !!!!!!!!!!

I know some people have had problems with the ACT on the Super Cub but for me I don't think but I do but know it saved my plane on at least 4 occasions as I was learning but after the 8th or so flight switched it off !!!!!!!
I still switch it on and prefer to teach absolute newbie friends on the Super Cub, ACT gives me time to grab the box off them when it's neccassary rather than the plane heading towards the ground full throttle, also it flies slightly slower than the MiniMag (although I do have brushless ine the MiniMag) which I also think is good for the complete newbie and gives them more time to think and correct wrong inputs !!!!!!!