I have just decided to get into R/C planes, but I dont know where to start. I picked up a magazine and have begun looking for a plane to buy, but i don't know what to start with or where to go. Being that it will cost me $200+, i dont want to get a plane and wreak it. How do I start and where can I get information.

A few questions I do have are: What are the benefits of ARF and RTF? What should I look for in a beginner plane? Keep in mind i've never flown one before.

A few planes that I looked at are the Kwik Fly II, some MegaTech planes like the Air Strike/Capitol Flyer/Sky Liner..are these good to start with?

Thanks!

Jason

If you dont want to spend a heap of $$$ on planes have a look at www.spadtothebone.com free planes and heaps of help to get you started.

IMHO stear well clear of the ready to fly park flier type planes, they may be only a few bucks but they are a toy compared to normal RC planes.

Some of your questions were pretty specific, so let me see if I can deal with those...

Benefits of ARF or RTF -- the biggest benefit is that many guys feel more ready to challenge themselves with a plane that they don't have a big time investment in. That can be a double edged sword -- on the one hand, you don't learn to fly unless you take your plane out and fly it, BUT less time invested also means less commitment, so you don't feel like there's as much to lose if you give up on flying. The other down side of buying ARF/RTF is that you don't get the plans or the knowledge of your plane that you'd need to make a repair IF you happen to have a mishap on the way to becoming a hot-shot pilot. Some ARF/RTF planes also come covered with low quality materials and/or built with less attention to joint strength and alignment that they should have (these aspects are getting better and better though, with many ready planes having very good quality materials and workmanship). One last difference -- some of today's ARF or beyond planes can be had for about the same money (or even less) than it would cost you to build the same plane (for example, look at the cost of a SIG Kadet LT-40 kit plus adhesives plus covering vs the cost of the LT-40 ARF... the ARF is actually cheaper!)

Characteristics of a good beginner plane -- stable (which generally means high wing and moderate (not high) power), fairly big for easy visibility and pilot orientation (staying oriented is one of the biggest parts of learning to fly these planes), reliable (that's a good thing for airframe AND power plant... and certain engine brands are known for stressing reliable runnung over excess power)... others may have more to add to this list, but this'll get you started. The most important single thing is the help of an instructor -- a mediocre plane with a good instructor will get you way further than an excellent plane with a bad instructor or none.

The planes -- the choice should depend partly on where you'll be flying. If you'll be with a club using glow fuel powered planes, you should go that way, too.... which also allows you have a bigger plane (read slower, more forgiving, and easier to see and keep track of its attitude). The megatech planes are the right type of plane for a learner, but they're small and electric -- so they'll need to go faster to stay in the air and you're less likely to be able to find knowledgeable help as you learn. The Kwik Fly II -- if it's based on the Kwik Fly, it's a low-wing aerobatic plane that's not at all the trainer type. There are frequent "recomended trainer" threads here and at other similar sites... usually concurring with the Sig Kadet LT-40 as a top candidate for a first plane. You may as well check out those threads and see what people have to say about that and other planes. (The info there's less specific than in advertisements, but it's also more objective.)

I tend to tell people to stay away from most of the park flyers because they are built really light and break really easy. They also will not handle much wind.

ARFs are ok, but you will not know how to fix it later if you have a problem.

Look at towerhobbies.com and look at some of the trainers there. They have a lot of good ones. Before you buy anything, find a local flying club and visit them. Find an instructor and have him help you. I would look at a .40 size plane that you can learn on and it will handle the flying, and the crashing better. You will eventually break one. Its just the way it goes. If you get a good instructor, you can learn faster and not break them right off.

Hope that helps.

As a beginner, and someone who is still assembling my LT-40 ARF [Only reason it's taking so long is I've been working theater hours, and that means 2pm to sometime in the AM.] Anyway, I strayed away from the RTF I was originally going to get, and am happy I did so. I got to put it together and realize how it all works. I disagree with starting with a Kit, but I guess that's because I have had little building experience. It really depends on you and your knowledge.

My wife and I bought our 12 year old son an ARF for Christmas from Hobby Town USA and we are all quite pleased. We have been told by ALL the guys at our local club field, "this is the best possible trainer plane to start with". It has a 60" wingspan and the fuse is 50" long. It came with a 4 channel Futaba radio system, servos and all. It also included an OS 40 glow engine, so only thing left to buy was the fuel. I highly recommend you go to your local field and meet some of the experienced flyers there. They are the pros and ours have always been more than willing to give advice and help us out. We were lucky with the choice we made prior to going to the field, but I want to make sure you have this same advantage. My son and I only started getting into this great hobby after this past Christmas, so being a newbie is still very fresh in my mind. Go to the field, most hobbiest want to help newbies head in the right direction. You can go to my gallery and see a few picutres of my son and his plane, a Hobby Town Super Star Select Trainer 40. It is manufactred for HT by Hobbico, so a Hobbico Super Star Select Trainer 40 would be the same plane, but with a different color scheme. We picked up the ARF plane, engine and radio system as a combo for $300.00. For information in addition to what is offered at your field, right here on RCU is the best place to ask questions, get answers, and learn what a great hobby flying RC airplanes is all about.
Good Luck!!!

If you want something more aerobatic than the standard trainer, lands slow, and is stable, try the Right Flyer 60 from Global. They are bigger needing a .60 but a LA .65 or TT GP .60 doesn't cost much, and large planes fly better. Best of all they are on sale now for only $120.

http://www.hobbypeople.net/gallery/125814.asp

I'll second this airplane. It's easy to repair, easy to fly, and very stable on landings. You'll want to replace the stock pushrods because they bind too easily. I have a G1 and a G2, both are great ships.

My son has become expert in one-point landings (crashes!), so I'm getting good at replacing the firewall (I actually made a template!). Only takes a couple hours now.

I have a G1 that is 3 years old and I use it to break in a variety of engines. The G2 that Global ships now has better hardware, better covering and receiver mounts. It's cheap and you'll have it in the air in a couple days.

Can't go wrong with this one.

How about a personal review of the Aerobird from a new RCer, me. I looked at
the Firebird II, XL, Fighterbird and the Aerobird. With three channels you
can do a lot more, so I went with the Aerobird.

I was not interested in building. If I spent a month building and then
wrecked it, I would be crushed. I wanted a RTF that could take some
punishment.

I am a first timer. However I am also one of these guys that goes into intense
research when I get interested in something. After several months of research,
talking to people, flyers and non, I bought an Aerobird. It is a super value
but there are other good starters. Here are the plusses and minuses in my mind
of the Aerobird.

Very inexpensive and rugged for a three channel starter - $150-$170 when I bought it. Now down to the 120-150 range.

The plane comes complete and fully assembled. Charge the flight battery, put
on the wing, put the batteries in the transmitter and up you go! Even the
batteries for the transmitter are included.

New flyers like me are going to crash, so you don't want something costly to
start with. There is a full line of parts available at reasonable cost. You
can replace the whole main fuselage for $49 including the motor and all the
flight electronics. A wing is $15 and the tail is $7. So, if you crash badly
you can get everything for under $75 and you are back in the with a three
channel plane.

Batteries and charger:

The battery will run for a full 5-6 minutes at full throttle and 12-15
minutes+
at half throttle. Many planes in this class run 4-6
minutes. And unlike many of the 2 channel starters, it comes with a peak
charger that you can use in your car. If you pick up two spare batteries you
can stay in the air all day. A full charge takes about 40 minutes.

Another plane I liked was the Sky Scooter Pro, now the Pro II. You can get it
as a base plane and motor and add your own electronics or get it ready to fly
with a 72 MHZ Hittec 3 channel radio for about $150. This was my second
choice to the Aerobird. I like it a lot!

The Aerobird also has an X-Pak hop up kit available for $30. It includes a 7
cell battery (the basic is 6) and a larger tail. This makes the plane faster
and more maneuverable. So, once you get good you can soup it up! I bought the
X-Pak when I bought mine. I will use the 7 cell as my second battery and save
the tail for later.

WIND

All new flyers should start in winds under 5 MPH so that you are learning to
fly the plane rather than fighting the wind. I didn't do that and crashed a
lot because of the wind. However, now I am very comfortable flying this plane
in 10-12 MPH winds. Handles it very well.

27 MHZ vs 72 MHZ Radio

The Aerobird uses a 27 MHZ radio which is assigned to general use for planes,
cars and boats; mostly low end stuff. There are only 6 available channels. So,
if you have a kid with a RC car in the same area where you are flying, and he
is on the same channel you are on, and he is close enough, when he switches on
his transmitter, you will lose control of the plane and probably crash. Even
with 72 MHZ radio systems, this will happen if you get two flyers on the same
channel, but 72 MHZ is dedicated to airplanes. High end RC cars are on 75 MHZ
so they won't interfere.

The flight control is a single stick radio with rudder and elevator on the
stick. Throttle is on a slide on the left top. It is similar to a Futaba or
Hitec single stick arrangement. I find it very comfortable to use and other
flyers who have tried it say they find it easy as well.

If you are going to join a club, check with them. Some clubs will not admit 27
MHZ based planes because they can't be flown with a buddy box, a training
system, like a dual controlled car, that is used for pilot training. After
long consideration I bought the Aerobird, but these are things I took into
consideration. My club, www.lisf.org has many firebird pilots, so the
Aerobird was welcome The Sky Scooter Pro, mentioned above, is on the 72 MHZ
band set-up so you don't have any of these considerations.

Downed Plane Locator:

If you fly near woods, swamp, tall grass or places where the plane could go
out of sight, get some kind of plane locator. It is amazing how hard it can
be to see a plane in the woods or tall grass that is 10 feet from you.

Here is a review of an Emergency Locator Beacon that illustrates its value
(this site is somewhat unreliable)
http://webhome.idirect.com/~arrowmfg...s/elb-revi.htm
Sounds like a good idea to me. Every plane I ever own will have some kind of
locator.

Here are three examples of locators:
http://www.customelectronics.co.uk/lma.htm
http://www.hobbico.com/accys/hcap0335.html
http://www.rcelectronics.bravepages.com/Locator.html

These won't work on my Aerobird. I am using one of these:
http://www.keyringer.com

They look like a small clicker for your car door locks. They work by sound.
You click one of a pair which sends out a chirp that the second one hears and
answers. I place it on top of the wing under the rubber bands that hold
the wing. Itbalances nicely, and I can easily move it from plane to
plane..

Resources Aerobird, Sky Scooter Pro

Here is an internet site that sells the Aerobird. They also have a
link for a video of the plane flying:
http://www.parkflyers.com/html/aerobird.html

Here is a link to a review of the Aerobird:
http://www1.wildhobbies.com/news/de...w&articleid=853

As I said, my alternative plane was the Sky Scooter Pro. It had been about
$260 RTF, but they recently released the Sky Scooter Pro 2 at about $160 so
you might want to give it serious consideration.
http://www.servocity.com/ServoCity/...._airplane.html

Videos
http://www.hitecrcd.com/Funtec/videos.htm

So, that's my evaluation of the Aerobird and why I purchased it. I fly as
often as I can. I have about 25 flights on my plane since the end of March.
I am fully self taught. At this point I am just loving it. My friend has a
Wingo and says he likes flying my Aerobird so much he plans to get one to0.

Net Net, I think this is a great starter plane!