Ok, here's the deal. Last year, I was completely new to this stuff. I spent the money on Realflight G3, and spent probably 4-6 months on it. I then went out and, against all better judgment, purchased the F27-C Stryker. Believe it or not, I can fly the hell out of it.

Now, my brother (44) wants to get into the sport. He even asked to fly my Stryker. I hated to say "no", but I had to. He has absolutely no experience at all. He's a very busy man, and no time for RC Sims on the PC, and I serously doubt he'll get a membership at a club and go with an instructor. He just bought a new house, with 11 acres of pasture (perfect for flying), and I go over to his house to fly all the time. Which is why he wants to join in. lol


I have looked at the local hobby shop, and have been trying to determine the best thing for him to do. I was thinking one of the very low end Hobbyzone planes. They aren't costly, and supposedly advertised as beginner planes, to learn to fly on. I sortof picture them as a bit better, bigger versions of my little Airhogs Aero Ace lol. Just throttle and rudder. It would at least get him accustomed to the hardest thing with flying, orientation.

The problem is, I'm not sure how he could take-off/land with these. They all have dinky landing gear. I've no experience with landing gear, nor how well they do on grass (I'd assume, regular backyard grass is bad due to the bumpyness).

I do know he really wants a WWII warbird. Something like the Parkzone lines were what I was thinking. They could be hand-launched and belly landed. But I worry the controls might be a bit too much for him to grasp immediately.


The last idea I had was to figure out some way to buddy-box him myself, and allow me to be an instructor to him. I am by all means no instructor, but I figured, perhaps I could help somehow if necessary.


I tried talking to him about it, and insisting that he at least spend some time with the sim, but I know how he is. He won't mess with it on his own (country type lol), and I know for a fact he's not going to do the flying field/instructor path.



So, what are your suggestions?

If you say, "Tell him, he's better off with an instructor anyway, rather than lose money by buying something and crashing/losing it." Then all that'll do is turn him of of it period. I would love for him to join me.....somehow.

If you are fairly competent yourself then YOU could act as his instructor. When you buy, get something that can be buddy-boxed to you and just get some altitude before switching it over to him. Fly high and slow for a while until he has gotten good enough to be on his own. Don't rush it though.

Sounds good. Although, if I understand it correctly, the packaged radios in the RTF kits aren't buddy-box ready, right? Well, unless you get something like a Hangar 9 or something, but that's quite a bit of money.

As of now, with just my Stryker RTF radio and whatever plane he chooses (like the hobbyzone supercub or something), I doubt they'll work as a buddy-box.


However, I am strongly considering buying a new radio/servos for my Stryker, as it's a bit shaky alot of the time, and I'm always having to give it almost full down elevator trim, to keep it level.

Yup, I second Bruce's comment.

Why not give him a "taste" of your Stryker with a buddy box.

That would be the optimal way. However, honestly, I'm not sure I'm that confident yet. Everytime I fly it (probably 12 times now), I'm so "on the edge", it's crazy. I'm not sure if I could recover from a mistake he would make with that thing. Possibly if high enough, but man is that plane wild. lol

I suppose if we were to keep it at half throttle and low rates, then it could be doable though. But he's a racecar driver, and knowing him, he's gonna want to "hit the gas" lol.

I have a Fighterbird and it's harder to fly successfully than my Goldberg Hot Stik or Contender 60. Wind sensitive, throttle on for lift, throttle off for crash, some turning ability with the V-tail. Toss the joke gear and hand-launch with belly landings on grass.

Better to learn on a trainer.