Ya I own a aerobird too great plane, also own some other electrics similiar to it. Great starting point, beats nothing. You will have tons of fun with those type of planes, I still fly them when I get down and out in the nitro world.

Well, I finally purchased the Extra Easy, great beautiful plane !! I flew it the other day under some gusty winds at time, should have known better. Flew it great for it seemed 15 mins or more, did some fancy loops ect. Landing though got me, wind kept catching it and taking it where it wanted to go, landing was rough I will say and thats all Im going to say =D. Repairs was just alot of minor work here and there involving tape and glue and a new $20 rudder piece, all said and done its actually better that new. Lot more stable with the work I did now verses out of the box.

I must say if anyone gets this plane be ready for a minor trim on your elevator controls, this plane likes to float on landings, and also elevate up for its AOA. I know this now, and have over come it and ready for my next flight which will be alot better unless something out of my hands happens =).

Anyways, I will highly recommend this plane to any one as a great trainer, the addons for it and the aerobatic tricks it can handle puts it even outside the trainer category, the model right under it is a great one too, the alpha trainer. All in all you just cant beat these 2 hangar 9 planes. Hats off to the company.

-Brandon

Time to get this back to the top again...

I am very new to the hobby and I have just found this site. I just read your post and I've gotta say that I totally can relate to the story. I would add that when I first went out, I had already done a ton of resarch and purchased an Alpha Trainer. Luckily, in Jacksonville there are a group of people that are very good about training and I found the instructor very easy to work with. I was a bit overwhelmed on the terminology and things he found wrong, and I too did not (still don't) have all the tools needed to repair some of the things he found wrong. It was nice to have him on a buddy box when my trainer freaked out and wanted to spin into the ground though.

Now I find myself at the same frustration level you wrote about. I have posted in another topic about a problem with my wing that was replaced by Hangar 9 and how I am now forced to learn how to "build" a model to get back in the air again.

I feel incompetent having to continually ask for help, but I know if I don't I'll destroy the model and quit the hobby.

I've been flying freeflight and contol line competitively since 1955. I like to design and scratch build and think myself fairly competent. I've had two buddy box RC flights. I'm thinking of building some parkflyer type airplanes. You better believe I will learn to fly RC with an instructor. We can only learn from our mistakes, but it is much cheaper and less frustrating to learn from the mistakes of others. That's what you are doing when you get help.

Jim

I agree with much of what has been said here. I've FINALLY gotten my third plane in the air
with the help of a local club and a very good instructor.

First plane:
Goldeberg Eagle 2, Fox 40, built it with ailerons.

Joined a local club in PA, wasn't easy... had to be recommended by another member and I really
didn't know anyone who was in the hobby. As luck would have it about the time I completed the Eagle 2 I had just bought a new-to-me car from a ad in the paper from a nice older gentleman and I noticed a RC plane hanging in his garage.

We ended up talking for about an hour and he understood my predicament, he had been a founding
member of a local club and although he didn't actively fly much anymore he still went to most of the
meetings and he offered to help me with my plane and sponsor me for membership.

Well the field was far enough away and I never did hook up with an instructor, but I happened to stop by
Valley Forge one day(conveniently while my plane was in the car) as I often did and lo and behold there was an instructor there from the VF Signal Seekers. He didn't have his buddy-box setup with him but if I wanted he offered to look over my plane and if it looked like it would fly he would be willing to take it up and try to get it trimmed. He did it flew and about five minutes into the flight it went deadstick, he made a beautiful landing and determined from questioning me that I probably didn't have the engine broken in properly yet and it probably got too lean and decided to overheat.

That week I moved about 25 miles away and the moving company managed to drop a box on the Eagle 2. It sat in the basement of the new house waiting for repair until one of sons managed to completely rekit it. We don't know which son, it was either "not me"... or "I dunno". Sold the radio, disassembled the gummed up Fox that I didn’t ‘after-lube and about a week later the same two kids were involved with the disappearance of many of the Fox 40 small bits from the workbench.

Fast forward one or three years.
While drooling in a hobby shop one day when I thought my wife wouldn’t mind, I succumbed to a Goldberg Mirage 550. Built it, hung it in the basement and hoped to get another radio someday when my
spouse wasn’t so preoccupied with non-essentials like food, mortgage, clothes for the kids… You know how it goes. Well it got some ‘hanger rash’ from ricochet BBs over the years…

Fast forward another year or so… I quielty slithered out of a hobby shop with a Great Planes PT40. Built most of it and again waited for the day when radios would be available. Another time I sneaked an OS 46FX home

Well I moved again, this time to Wisconsin, tried to hook up with one club via internet, but it turns out they never got my email. Took a trip to a somewhat local hobby shop, bought a radio and covertly got in to the basement. I heard the OS-FX likes to break off needle valves in a crash so I again covertly acted and got a used SuperTigre 40 from eBay (it really runs sweet too)

It finally all came together, this time instead of getting a club name from a hobby shop I got a person’s name and a phone number. I’ve met with the gentleman over the past few weeks and he’s put me to work with some of the field grooming and the PT40 has flown six times now and it hasn’t augured in yet. (I know it will sooner or later). Twelve or thirteen years or so into the hobby, and I’m finally airborne.

This time I’m at least for now (and hopefully not too much longer) unemployed. This time I got a name and number instead of a flyer or a “I think they meet on the sixth Tuesday of every other month”. It’s just that things are tougher in some respects. When I was growing up I was loose on my bicycle or hitchhiked. These days the rug-rats need to be ferried everywhere. Baseball, soccer, basketball or whatever. Businesses optimize for profit and burn employees out. You want to make that meeting tonight… but if you don’t get home and crash out… you just might get naked, put on army boots and carry a 30-06 into a bell-tower somewhere…

What’s it all come down to? Timing and communication. In the cell phone internet voice mail world today it's amazing how we’ve optimized our lives so much we often don’t have time to actually communicate or make that connection for the hobby. Forgetting that it may in the long run be key to our sanity.

VJL

i taught myself through practice, crashes, 3 helis dead, 11 planes dead, 2 cars dead and 1 boat dead.

For the people who want to learn with instructors, good luck.
Remember though instructors have bad days too. but you will
be ahead of the game.

For those who would like to learn from an instructor but there
aren't any around. ROAD TRIP. Find the closest club get in touch with
the instructor and explain the situation (Offer to buy him dinner)
even if you only go out once and the instructor trims your plane
and teaches you a little bit, you are a step up. if the closest club
won't help try the second closest, and so on.

for those that are to hard headed to try to find help, or maybe you
just don't believe it is as difficult as it sounds, Visa, AMEX,
Discover, Mastercard are your new best friends and if by chance you
don't crash on maiden congratulations try not to get cocky.

Also there are R/C flight schools that instruct. The people at the LHS
may be able to put you in touch with someone that can help. Look
at the forums and try and find people from your state that may have
advice on where to go or who to contact. They might even be instructors
themselves. I realize that it may be a long drive to find someone and
gas isn't cheap but the reality is, gas is probably cheaper than new
planes if you aren't a natural.

Just my thoughts.

i teach alot at our club and it is a big time commitment for the instructors. but it sure is fun to point the plane straight down and say "you got it?" [&:] just kidding i do that when they are closer to soloing to teach em how to get out of trouble. i warn em [X(] the first couple of times.

i heard that a trainer cord is worth a minimum of 5 airplanes to a new flyer.