I picked up a couple of glow trainers used pretty cheap and crashed after 4 successful flights. That 5th one was a great crash though
I did fly in the early 70s but I was pushing the limits and crashed a lot then too.
I thought about buying a simulator until I found out that my computer would need a new graphics card to support the simulator and by the time I buy and and a simulator I can buy a plane!
OK I am ready to move on. I am going to start with the radio package as I think that's the way to go.
I am thinking at this point that either the Futaba 6EX FASST or the Spectrum DX6I will be my next radio. I am not sure after reading that there is a clear advantage to either one. If there is I have not seen it so far.
If you know of one feel free to comment.
So my next venture is a plane. It seems that there are a couple of manufacturer's that make planes that find with the Spectrum products but I have seen none for the Futaba.
I will therefore assume that I should look for a plane kit and build it up with what I want. I thought about something like this to play with in the beginning but it may be too elementry. www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p
I don't want to spend a whole lot of money in the beginning on a trainer plane.Perhaps a decent slow flyer that you could recommend that I can put together. I am not afraid to assemble any of this stuff. But I would like to have something that can take some punishment for the learner.

i'd say a cg eagle 56. they are very durable and cheap. when i retired mine, it weighed over 9 pounds.
dan
I think spectrum is just trying to get its name out there and they give the rtf guys a good deal on their equipment. I dont have a preference between futaba or spectrum yet. I have always had futaba.
dan

Hi krashkart, you should look at the Hitec Optic 6 2.4Ghz radio system and the Airtronics RDS8000 radio system as well as the Futaba 6EX FASST or the Spektrum DX6i. All of the major manufacturers make great 2.4Ghz radio systems, but you might find that Futaba or Spektrum might charge more for extra receivers than Hitec or Airtronics.

The GWS Slow Stick is an excellent choice for a trainer. It's easy to fly, easy to assemble, and easy to repair. It can be flown indoors or outdoors, and can be modified later if you want to enhance your Slow Stick's performance. The stock form of the GWS Slow Stick can't fly in windy conditions much past about 10mph, however.

It would have been fun to see video from your 5th flight! Just remember that every plane has an expiration date, it's just not printed anywhere on the aircraft. Good luck, and feel free to post any additional questions you might have.

If you look at the top of the beginners header bar there is a sticky that will tell you pretty much what you need to know, all about trainers. The plane doesn't care what radio gear you install, that's an up to you choice. If you just go to a local club and ask around a lot of instructors have there own trainer with a buddy box so you don't need to worry about crashing. The instructor and buddy box are the way to go, I have been teaching with this system for a long time and none of my students have ever lost a plane until after there solo flights. Then it can get pretty ugly!!

I looked for the Carl Goldberg Eagle 56 and I did not find anything. I found a reference to some plans to build one. Maybe it's not made anymore or it was just plans?

I took a look at the Hitec and Airtronics. I read a review on the Airtronics and it looks pretty nice. I liked the menus too.
I don't know enough yet to judge the cost of the servos as I am not sure what Iwillneed just yet
There does seem to be some differences in the prices of receivers however as noted and I have taken a few notes there.
Years ago you bought one and it worked or so it seemed. Now we have so many receivers and servos for everything from micros to giants it's not funny.
I will check the sticky and see what all it says.

Thanks for the replies so far.

You'll want to search either for the Goldberg Eagle II trainer or the Goldberg Falcon 56 trainer; somebody got their fowl fouled.

There is a very thorough and detailed review of the Airtronics RDS8000 right here on RC Universe you can check out:

http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine/a...article_id=995

The folks at the AMA also reviewed the RDS8000 for Model Aviation magazine and the AMA's Sport Aviator web site:

http://www.masportaviator.com/ah.asp?CatID=3&ID=225

I was a happy Futaba 7CAF owner when I decided to make the jump to 2.4Ghz. I was going to stick with Futaba, until I noticed how much more reasonably priced extra receivers were for the Airtronics radio systems. I now own two RDS8000 radio systems and about 14 Airtronics 2.4Ghz receivers. Picking Airtronics has saved me a small fortune on extra receivers, and the systems have been bulletproof for two full years now. No lockouts, no brownouts, no lost receiver bindings, no glitches. I'm at least as happy as the two guys who wrote the reviews mentioned above.

Thanks that is the review that I read on the Airtronics already, the first one anyway. I will go read the second.
I understand that Airtronics has a good reputation out there.
You say the Airtronics receivers saved you money over the same thing in Futaba? Interesting.
How about servos? It appeared to me that they are all about the same.
The only problem that I see so far is that for the buddy link somebody has to have Airtronics. I have not checked on that yet at the club of course.
I also looked at the stickys. Of course lots of them dead end now. Such is life.
I did some reviews on the Sig lines, especially the Kadets. It would be interesting to build in retirement too.

These days you can use any brand of servo you choose.

I have Futaba, Hitec, and GWS 72Mhz receivers and Airtronics 2.4Ghz receivers. I use JR, Airtronics, Hitec, GWS, Hextronic, Futaba, and Ace servos with all of these brands of servo in no particular relation.

Protege 60 ARF: Airtronics 92824 receiver and JR ST-47 servos
VMar Ramrod 40: Airtronics 92824 receiver and Hitec HS-311 servos
King Kobra 60: GWS RD8SL receiver and Hitec HS-425BB servos
Staudacher S-300: Futaba R138PM receiver and Futaba S3151 servos on control surfaces and Ace 1903 servo on throttle
Sig E-Force ARF: GWS Pico 4 receiver with Hitec HS-55 and Hextronic HXT900 servos
Phoenix Dolphin 40: Airtronics 92824 receiver and Airtronics 94102Z servos
Thunder Tiger Mini Titan E325 heli: Airtronics RX 60 receiver and Ace C1016 servos
Thunder Tiger Tiger Stick: Airtronics 92824 receiver and Futaba S3003 servos

Servos and receivers are largely all cross-compatible these days with very, very few exceptions.

I have heard that before and forgot about it.
I did understand that the digital servos are a bit better but most likely would make little difference for my training purposes.
I have two sets of 4 each Futaba servos with radios to go with them so I could use those servos assuming my project plane would support their size of course. They are standard sized servos.

OK, I just finished reviewing that second review of the RDS 8000. I sure looks good to me and a little research just showed me that I can buy one with the receiver for $160 which does not seem like a bad deal.
I may just order one of those in the morning.

Krashkart,
Hi. I do a fair bit of instructing and the AIRtronics looks good to me as well. If you are going to be on a buddy box, as student or as instructor, take that into consideration.
As far as planes go though, Sig's LT 40 is hard to beat. I learned on the Goldberg planes and they are a VERY close second IMHO. Goldberg Eagle (II) on floats is a blast as well.
Pm me if you would like info on making a trainer into a water ready convertable.

Granted, but when you crash a plane on the simulator you just mash the reset button instead of the "Buy" button on a new plane. It would save you a lot of money in the long run if you have a tendency to crash. If you could live with a Spektrum 5 Channel (no real reason why you couldn't with a 4 channel trainer) the Phoenix simulator sold by Horizon comes with a 5 Channel Spektrum that is actually a full range radio you can use to fly your planes.

The Airtronics I have and is a good radio. I am also still trying to find a Buddy Box for it. I might just get another for a backup. I suggest you get somekind of sim, FMS will work with older PC's. If you do go with a GWS SlowStick get the Slope version with no power system and get a brushless set up from HobbyKing.
[link]http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbycity/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=4708&Product_Name=TowerP ro_BM2409-12T_/_25A_BEC/_9x6_Prop_Combo[/link]
I fly mine in winds I would never fly a different plane. Sometimes I have to hold it down to keep from blowing away.-BW

I bought a pair of RDS8000s so I could buddy box with them and so I would have a backup transmitter in case I needed to send one in. I've been happy with my choice. With two computer radios, I can reduce the student's throws on the slave radio to avoid twitchiness while keeping full throws on the master for easier recovery. If you match the programming exactly on both radios, you also know that the student box is trimmed perfectly before you ever take off.

You can still buy new VG400 transmitters on EBay for around $20.99 shipped from a seller named mnhobbies. I've bought a few things from him over the years; he's a good seller and his merchandise always arrives as advertised. You can get the regular Airtronics buddy box cable to use with the VG400 and the RDS8000 and you'll be good to go.

The new SD-10G transmitter isn't buddy box compatible with any of the previously existing Airtronics radios. The new SD-5G and SD-6G radio systems are buddy box compatible with the SD-10G.

If you need a video card to soup up your PC, check out some of the ATI HD 4650/HD 4670 video cards available at NewEgg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814131180

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814141114

These cards are very inexpensive yet very powerful with regard to 3D graphics acceleration. If your computer has a PCI-E expansion slot available for an add-on video card, one of these cards will allow you to run any flight simulator you'd like.

As for simulators, the best "Bang for the Buck" in the simulator world is ClearView:

http://www.rcflightsim.com/

The graphics are good, but the flying physics are really, really good.

You can download ClearView and try it in demo mode for 15 minutes of actual playing time. You can also playback the two pre-recorded demo loops indefinitely to make sure the simulator runs well on your PC.

If you decide to buy it, ClearView costs $39.99 to register and you can upgrade the demo version automatically through online payment.

I normally fly Real Flight G5 and ClearView with my Interlink controller from my original Real Flight G3 purchase. I have used the ESky EK2-0905A USB simulator controller:

http://www.raidentech.com/e4chflsitrki.html

I bought mine through http://www.raidentech.com and flew it with both FMS and ClearView. It takes a little bit of effort to calibrate the ESky controller first through the Windows Game Controller control panel and then through each individual simulator's calibration routine. Once the calibration routines were finished, the controller felt just as accurate as my Interlink controller or an actual transmitter.

$60 will get you a good simulator, a weak simulator (FMS), and a good USB controller to use with both. You could also consider EasyFly 3 or Real Flight Basic, but they commonly sell for almost twice as much at $99.98 to $129.99. These are both available at http://www.towerhobbies.com.

Tower also carries a pretty cool little bundle for something called EasyFly 3 SE:

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXXUS9&P=0

For $29.99, you get a USB gamepad controller for your PC and a limited version of EasyFly 3 (which is itself a limited version of Aerofly Professional Deluxe). This new bundle is only $10 more than the ESky controller and FMS. I feel pretty safe in guessing that the graphics and physics are worth the extra $10 on EasyFly 3 SE.

Good luck and good shopping!

Thanks for all the information.
I am going to see about getting a graphics card for my computer so I can run a decent sim program at this point.

OK, well I just got back from checking with a computer guy about a graphics card. I took both the requirements for RealFlight G5, Basic and information about my computer.
He said he could sell me a graphics card but it would not run right on my computer. When I bought the computer I got a cheaper unit for the internet as that's about all I used it for. It has a Celeron Processor, 450 @ 2.2 GHz and 2 GB of ram.
He tells me that either the basic or the G5 will most likely be jerky in operation due to the Celeron processor.
So I am back to square 1. I am not going to buy another computer to run a simulator.
So it's back to the drawing board. I will just find something cheap to play with in the way of an electric plane.

I run G5 on a laptop with a 1.6ghz and 2 GB of ram. I just turn off some of the graphics. Yours should run it with a decent video card of 512mb +.-BW

Clearview will run fine on a 2.2Ghz Celeron. So will FMS. I'd also bet that EasyFly 3 SE package I mentioned would run perfectly well also. What they won't run well on is the integrated Intel video that your cheap PC probably uses. An inexpensive 3D video card with its own dedicated memory will make any of those simulators run well on 2Gb of Ram and a single core 2.2Ghz Celeron CPU.

Yes you are correct I have the integrated video card. Like I said, this computer is just used for the internet and that's it.
I won't spend a lot of money to replace the computer or video card as it's just not worth it to me. Frankly I would rather put the $ into equipment and have someone work with me to bring my skills up to what they ought to be. I don't have a lot of money to spend each month in retirement on toys so I have to watch the $ needless to say.
I did checking with some of the club members and almost nobody has an Airtronics radio that can buddy up with me to teach.
Some do have Hitec and many have Futaba and Spectrum.
So I guess now I will check out the DX6i, DX7, 6EX, and that Hitec Optic 6. Whatever I get in a radio will be 2.4 GHz.TheHiteclooks pretty good for value to me at this point.
One thing about this area, there are lots of retirees here and lots of them fly. There are 3 clubs within 15 miles or so and all are pretty active or so it appears.

FMS is free, but you need a contoller. Those can be found for under $30. Your pc will run it without ANY upgrades. I am almost sure Clearview and a fiew of the others will also.-BW

Here's a post with FMS:
[link]http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_9558493/tm.htm[/link]