Glad to hear it. Most clubs have a club trainer plane or an intructor that will supply a trainer plane and let you try it on a buddy box. It may even be an Avistar but could very well be a flat wing design, be sure and ask the instructor what plane it is and let us know how it goes!

spadflyer.com has some spad trainers. i have the "48 trainer" and it works well. its not as stable as other trainers but it is much much cheaper to purchase and repair, if you even have to fix it, they can take a beating. just buy the 50 pack of nylon bolts its well worth it cause you will break the landing gear off (no big deal just replace the bolts)

o and for the engine
get a gms .47 (the best bang for the buck) its really powerful and will pull that spad around nicely

The Hobbico Nexstar 46 was a great trainer for me. Even though you can find trainers for less, and granted there are some trainer features on this plane that you probably will want to disconnect, it comes with a 4 channel radio and simulator of the exact plane to practice on. It is a very forgiving plane and easy to learn on. No matter what you buy, use the buddy box, and do some research as to what modifications to make to the plane as your assembling it ( example : fuel proofing the engine and tank compartments etc )
Take your time - read as much as you can from these forums - find an experienced pilot to help you - put in as many hours on the sim as you can - and last but most important, approach this sport with respect for flying objects and SAFETY. Oh yeah, have fun too...... Good Luck

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...=LXEXK2**&P=ML

The Goldberg Eagle has been great to me, I really like it.

great advice, i'll look through all the websites you guys posted.

This Saturday I'm meeting with a local club trainer...he's bringing a buddy box and trainer.

What do you think is the best sim for the money??

I hear the 4.5 has a lot of bugs, plus i have a laptop that is not setup for gaming...so i don't think i have the processing power that everyone recommends...and it's $200!!

RF4.5 for the win... it's not perfect but it's easily the best of an imperfect bunch. As for if it's worth the money you have to decide for yourself but think about this... how much are you looking at spending on your first plane? If a few hours sim time can save that plane, is it worth it? It's not just your first plane it'll save either... you can practice that new manoeuvre on the sim over and over till you see it happen in your sleep before you risk later, more expensive planes with it.

Remember though that no pilot is perfect and even world championship winners still crash sometimes. Every plane you buy/build will have, written on the tail in invisible ink, the date it will crash.

completely agreed with the cost issue...like the invisible saga on the wing

The feedback i saw in the sim forums was that ppl were having a lot problems with 4.5...so actually preferred 4.0. But you recommend this company to any of the others out there? Do you know if they sell just the software...if i buy a plane, I imagine it would save a few bucks to use that as the remote for the sim.

I'v had the sim that came with the Nexstar RTF. And I just recently bought the 4.5. I'm not much on changing the internal flight characteristics of planes and flying through and around an amusement part setting as the 4.5 lets you. It does have more screens for landing strips and such but after you've flown one plane their pretty much the same. I guess the Heli training is good as well, but Im not into those.. Not familiar with other Sims, but most are pretty pricey other than the Nexstar version that comes with the plane and radio.
Depending on your length of stay in this hobby, you'll probably want to go with a computer radio system. The disadvantage to the Nexstar is that the radio isnt one, and it is just a second radio to have around the house. However, after I learned on it, I'v used it to train other newbies as well as to loan them the Sim

Knifeedge software don't sell just the software - the controller has the copy protection hardware built into it, and really it's the controller you're buying. If you really want to use your own radio you can plug your controller into RF's and use the included one as an adapter. There were a few bugs when v4.5 was released but these were mainly fixed with an update that was released quickly.

The big difference from RF3.x to 4.0 was in things like flight physics, ground handling, the addition of water with flying boats and seaplanes etc which advanced in a quantum leap and put RF way ahead of the competitors in terms of usefulness as a training aid. The main changes from 4.0 to 4.5 were cosmetic... more/better sounds, shinier planes, better scenery and so on - all of which will bog down a less then optimum computer. All these cosmetic features can be disabled in the program's setup however so you can get back to 4.0 performance. I run RF4.5 on a computer that was within hailing distance of "high end" 3-4 years ago so it's pretty average by today's standards... AMD Athlon 64 3500+ (single core), 1.5GB ram, Radeon X1300 gfx. I have most of the settings on medium with clouds turned off and I get good performance out of that. I also occasionally run it on my laptop (Intel Core 2 Duo 3GHz, 2GB ram, Radeon Mobility X2300) and get similar performance, perhaps slightly faster. I'm not looking for pretty planes, I'm looking for realistic physics to keep my skills up when I can't fly.

The other advantage to getting RF4.5 is that the five expansion packs which used to be an extra cost have been made free downloads for this version, as well as all the user-created planes & airfields that are free. This is due them changing the the way the software's written between version 3.x and 4.x. All the peopel who'd bought the expansion packs would have complained if they hadn't been able to use them with v4.x.

so if i buy 4.0, upgrade for free to 4.5...can i then also get the expansion pack for 4.5 for free?

Yup. Download them from the same site as the 4.5 upgrade.

so it would prob save some $$ if i bought 4.0....

Oops, after a quick check it turns out it's the "add on packs" that are free, the "expansion packs" are still being sold - I can never keep those two straight. Here's the link for the free downloads so you can see what's in them - http://www.realflight.com/free-g4-add-ons.html

Well, you wouldn't be starved for choices of airfield or plane/copter without the expansions/add ons but they do contain some of the more interesting ones. Also a lot of the user created planes and variants require one or more of the expansion/add on packs.

I'll second that, Goldberg Eagle is a very solid first plane. If you get the kit it's a great build (if you enjoy building) and if you don't it's available as an ARF.
Don

I have only the most basic of .02 cents.... Get a high wing trainer, could you learn on the hanger 9 warbird trainers? OF COURSE! Would you have fun doing it, I dont think you would. I STILL have a high wing trainer, its a .40 sized and it has a O.S. 46AX engine on it. Its fast, its fun and crashing the thing is, well, for lack of better description, impossible. Look I have seen someone who has never flown a RC plane before take off a Will hobby high wing trainer and land it no problem. First flight ever....While this isnt the norm, it does show how forgiving and docile they are. I dont think you can really go wrong with any high wing trainer, they all are about the same... I still fly my trainer as a "Lazy Sunday" Flyer. When I dont feel like "Flying" A plane the whole time its in the air I choose the Trainer. Cant so much do snap rolls, but it will do loops, barrelrolls, nose up stall turns. More then fun enough and she lands floating on marshmallows. Im getting ready to mess with it some more, Im going to put a digital camo pattern on top the fuse and plane and a grey-ish color on the bottom.... Thinking red digital camo with red grey and black. Why?? cause I can....And I can spend all kinds of time on making the color scheme GREAT and SEXY and PERFECT, cause I prolly wont crash her(knock on a big A@@ piece of wood). Anyway, get what you want to learn on, sure you could learn on a TF spitfire after 4000 hours on a buddy box. But wouldnt you like to be soloing after 10 flights? EASY to do on a trainer with some know how. I think that pretty much sums up what most the GUYS WHO KNOW are trying to say..... wait that was WAY more then some basic .02$ hahahah[X(]

PS-SIMS are GREAT, while not 100% perfect they do help learn how to avoid the..."ok, plane is coming straight for me... Lets roll left....AW S*%# Im rolling right ahhhhhh!!!!! " *CRASH!* Been there...done that haha

that was a hilarious response, but i did note the educational pieces.

I really want to build a B17 scale...but i figured i would need at least 5 practice flight b4 i got behind the wheel of that monster...kidding, no worries.

Some of the planes i have seen are amazing, if i get hooked, a few yrs down the road i'm building a scale B-17...would look incredible flying by.

FMS; download it for free. You can buy the tx and the software from nitroplanes. com for $20. It will help with muscle memory, and orientation. I tried RF 4.5 at the LHS, its great and blows FMS out of the water but at $200 it will have to wait.

I can't say enough about the Hobbico Avistar. As stable as can be, and tough as Gen. Patton. Forgiving enough, but still fun to fly. It's my seaplane now.

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXJDH3&P=0

WHat do you think of this...i was thinking of pairing with the Spektrum DX7..