Help me please!
 

I am brand new at r/c planes and don't know much about it. I want to get into it and wanna know if you guys have any advise for me. Id also wanna know What is a good quality plane for a reasonable price. I'm probably looking for an electric one to start out. I was just looking at them but theres so many I just don't know how to look for them.

RE: Help me please!
 

If you are really serious about getting into the hobby then forget about electric power for now. The planes are small. fragile, underpowered, have short flight times, and can not be flown if its breezy out. The standard RC trainer has a 60 to 70 inch wing span so that you see what the plane is doing and also so that it takes more wind to flip it upside down. They are designed to use a 40 or 46 size glow engine. These engines are reasonable on fuel and have good power. Check out the link below at Tower Hobbies for a good starter set that comes with the prebuilt and covered plane, radio, servos, and engine.:D
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...I=LXMU53**&P=M

RE: Help me please!
 

What Fastsky said is BASICALLY correct. Many people have learned on electrics though.

I would suggest the following:

1. Go to your local hobby shop and get the name(s) of local flying clubs and who to contact. Also find out where they fly from.

2. Go out to the field a few times, hang around and talk to the people there. Most RC people are more than happy to talk about their hobby. Tell them you are new and are interested in learning how to fly. They will most likely introduce you to an instructor or a club officer that can answer your questions. The majority of clubs teach glo plane flying, however, many are also starting to teach electric.

3. See what the wind conditions are like at the field and ask if the present wind is normal or not. The reason for this is that MOST electric planes, ESPECIALLY the majority of park flyers and trainers, have a lot of difficulty with wind over 5 mph - they actually prefer calm to about 2 - 3 mph. The wind and whether or not the club teaches electric will probably help make your decision for you.

4. If you like the people you are talking to, go to one of their meetings. At the meeting talk to people. I am certain someone there has a USED setup (Plane, transmitter, engine/motor, etc) for sale at probably about 1/2 of what it would cost you to buy it new. It won't be as "pretty" as a new plane, but then you won't feel as bad either when (not IF, but WHEN) you crash it.

5. If you like what you see and hear, then join up. Joining the AMA and joining the club are NORMALLY required to fly at the club's field. The club will provide the instructor at no charge. Just remember that the instructor may not always be available when you are.

6. Check with the club on this. SOME AMA sanctioned clubs offer a special program. The club provides the plane, instructor and equipment for 30 days at no cost to you. The program is designed to get people into RC flying by letting them see what RC flying is like/about before laying out any money. Check with the club - NOT EVERY CLUB OFFERS THIS.

7. DO NOT TRY TO TEACH YOURSELF TO FLY. While many people have taught themselves to fly, it is a steep learning curve and VERY FRUSTRATING (not to mention expensive) without an instructor. Persons teaching them selves to fly NORMALLY have a first flight of under 30 seconds that usually winds up "rekitting" the plane.

8. If you decide this is for you, get a simulator. The sim will not teach you to fly, but it will allow you to practice what you have been taught. FMS is a decent sim AND a FREE D/L. At the other end of the spectrum there is RealFlight G2 (about $200). FWIW - RealFlight is probably the closest you can come to flying an RC plane without actually doing it.

Hope this has been of some help to you.

RE: Help me please!
 

ya my friend just bought a nexstar and hes gonna got to the flying fields tomorrow and im gonna see if i can go with him. thanks alot for the advice.

RE: Help me please!
 

> The planes are small. fragile, underpowered, have short flight times, and can not be flown if its breezy out. <

What a strange thing to say. Go to an e-power meet and see planes that fly just like the wet-power ones. How about big -4motor B-17s, how about 165mph screamers, how about large WW2 fighters and on and on. They sure ain't dinky park flyers out there.

RE: Help me please!
 

If you have the NexStar, I STRONGLY SUGGEST turning off the AFS. Get an instructor and learn on a "buddy box". I have heard too many horror stories about the AFS.

RE: Help me please!
 

Dave,
While what you say is true about state of the art electrics, it is not true of the stuff a beginner is likely to choose. For a beginner to start out with electrics the choices are either the "small. fragile, underpowered, have short flight times, and can not be flown if its breezy out" kind of park flyer, or the beginner has to invest a huge amount of research and money into developing his own aircraft/motor/speed control/battery pack/charger combination.

YEs electrics have come a tremendously long way in the past couple of years, but they still aren't "plug and play" like glow powered trainers are.
Dennis-

RE: Help me please!
 

.
I started on a FireBirdII from HobbyZone ($139 Canadian + tax). I had no instructor, flew at the local double ball diamond, eventually made some very basic mods on my own and only had to replace a wing and a tail ($30 canadian) during my learning curve. now I can I can fly in 10 mph winds, do chandels and a sort of loop/roll thingie (only so much a V-tail 2 channel plane will do). It will even handle 15mph+ with the Speedwing and 5cell battery upgrades.
This plane has hit two trees, cartwheeled on landing. nose dived into the ground from under 15' and taken tall prarie grass abuse on the leading edge during regular landings and it still flies ok after only packing tape repairs. Oh and my three batteries (4cell 600 MaH) keep me in the field for 90 minutes and if I had a quick charger I could be charging battery 1 while flying on 2 and 3.
Poo-Pooh the electric RTF's if you must but they have a market and practically guarantee a successful first flight.

RE: Help me please!
 

Maxx10,
I dont know your area or even where it is you live (Im in Australia) but if theres any hills near you, I strongly suggest you get an EPP foam glider like a Zagi or Wing Warrior etc and learn to slope soar. Ask at your LHS or local club if anyone flies slope nearby, they should know. Or ask in the gliders section of this sites forums or another great gliding site, RC Groups.
They're cheaper to buy, cheaper to run and almost indestructible. If the wind is blowing up the slope and you have batteries your flying time is almost unlimited, youll get a LOT of stick time very quickly and learn how to fly without fear of destroying anything. I started in RC aeroplanes 18months ago, 2 weeks ago I flew my first glo-powered model (a borrowed trainer) and today I flew a brand new CAP232 scale aerobatic plane without a problem. Stick time is what you need to learn. I seriously wonder how many guys flying glo only, can say they started a days flying with a fully charged transmitter (1100mah battery = about 4.5 hours flight time) and had it go flat before 3pm in the afternoon and have done that more times than they remember. Id estimate I got well over a hundred hours in my first year of flying.
Seriously consider learning on a slope with a glider, it'll teach you a lot, a lot faster than flying anything else. Once you got that flying experience, moving on to glo power will be easy, plus when the glo motor quits on you, you wont panic like so many guys Ive seen do, you'll know how to fly a glider. My first dea stick (no motor) in a glo powered plane had guys clearing the runway and yelling advice on what not to do, as my plane landed on the strip in a nice landing a few commented on how calm I was, I simply said I felt at ease without the motor as none of my previous models ever had one.

RE: Help me please!
 

medic,
As you said, many have started out with Firebirds or Aerobirds with great success. (I'd suggest the Aerobird to anyone seriously considering a smallish electric, becasue they're 3 channel and a bit more controllable.) And as Dave Segal said, virtually any plane can be powered successfully by electric power today, and perform very well. In fact, if you're willing to invest $700 to $1000 in the power system, you can put together a 40 size plane that will outperform it's glow powered counterpart with a 60 size four stroke, both in power and endurance.

I have, and fly, smaller electrics up to speed 400 size and enjoy the convenience of electric power, BUT they will likely not replace internal combustion engines for me anytime soon. There IS nothing like the sound and pure testosterone grunt of glow and gas. ;)
Dennis-

RE: Help me please!
 

The wind always blows here in Texas and not so long ago i saw an electric fly backwards because the wind was blowing hard,the last couple days the wind has finally been calm.
On another note,they have some of the biggest competition in electrics with huge planes in Arizona or so i've heard.

RE: Help me please!
 

dbcherry, u suggested the firebird and aerobird planes and i was wondering what brand they are and where i can find them online.

Thanks everybody for all the posts!