A New/Old beginner
 

First post here on RCU. I was a former of Wattflyer that, apparently, went away. I'm considering taking this hobby back up after about a 12 year hiatus. Alot has changed since then. It appears that Tower was absorbed by Horizon. Yes, no? I have a plethora of planes that I went on a building frenzy over back at the time. I have several old Parkzone planes. I still have my original Hobbyzone Super Cub trainer, an Eflite Pawnee, an Eflite Taylorcraft, Tribute, Apprentice (never flown). A seagull Decathlon, (never flown), a Hangar 9 Miss America P-51 (flown once), an Eflite Beaver (never flown), and several other Electrifly Biplanes (one new in the box) and Eflite, and Eflite UMX planes. Last count, about 35 planes. The focus of my work at the time was to pay for more planes. I was an idiot.

Question is, is there any resource outside of Ebay for replacement parts? Once I dumb-thumb some of these planes, they're gone for good. What can anyone tell me other than don't crash anything?

Granted, you have a chunk of cash invested but with that many airplanes on hand I wouldn't worry about replacement parts. If there is one that you just really enjoy your best bets are to hit all the swap meets that occur within a day's drive and start asking around among local fliers to see if they have crashed or partial airplanes sitting on a shelf somewhere. Facebook market place often has a lot of old models although the are often over priced. You don't mention what radio system you are using but they almost all have some version of a stability assist receiver these days. If you are worried about getting your reflexes back these receivers are a big help. Don't be ashamed to have somebody buddy box you until the muscle memory comes back. Throw some fresh batteries in the transmitter, get a couple of new Lipo's for either the Cub trainer or the Apprentice and get back in the air. Remember, foamies can be repaired. Bamboo skewers and Foamtack glue can fix a lot of mistakes..

Thanks for the response. Hadn't thought about Marketplace even though that can be a nightmare. I have 3 Spektrum radios that I'm a little rusty at driving. I just need to get them out and play with them.
I also own a version of Realfight. Like I stated, I was heavily immersed in all of this stuff at one time. What became of Wattflyer?

welcome! here are a few links:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/Wattflyer
https://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/rc-...cu-debuts.html
looks like they renamed it:
https://wattflyer2.freeforums.net/

I mention market place mostly because you can often find things locally. I guess Craigslist is also still out there although I don't know if it is worth the effort.

Real flight is good for getting back in the saddle. You wont regret spending some time shooting landings. The main thing to be careful about is that your brain remembers that you were however good of a pilot that you were but your hands have forgotten a lot of the moves. Lately we have had two guys at our flying field who have returned after a decade or more layoff. On guy came back with the latest hotness that he got online and immediately proceeded to crash it. He blew through several airplanes and blamed other who had tried to help him set up his equipment. The other flier is an older fellow who was a pretty good pilot fifteen or twenty years ago. I have to give him credit. In his eighties he has better reflexes that some people half his age but he has been pretty methodical in his return to flying. He has started back with inexpensive foamies and after the summer has passed he is back to flying 3-D maneuvers. Watching these two fellows has informed a lot of my advice to anybody getting back in the air. The first fellow has settled down a bit BTW and is more tolerable to be around.

As for Wattflyer, apparently there is a story there but I suspect that part of it is that electric flight has just become the mainstream rather than the exception.

I have stepped back a few times.. And it seems like you retain more of the muscle memory than you might think..

As you mentioned you have Spektrum equipment. In the last 12 years there has been alot of software updates for Spektrum. Something you should look into to get your equipment up to latest programming features.