First Solo
 

Hello All

i'm a beginner, i need your advice about flying solo for the first time, its hard to get an instructure around here, is it ok to fly without an instructure for the first time? i have a reflex xtr sim, is the sim going to help me with my first solo?

Please i need advice

Thank you

RE: First Solo
 

If you really have no access to an instructor then get all the practice you can on the SIM and do not try to fly until you can takeoff, land, fly towards you on the SIM and do it all without thinking about it and crashing.

Sims cannot replace the real thing but they do help especially with orientation.

NOw to what you are going to here allot of. Try to get some instructor training if at all possible, there is more to flying than just put the plane in the air. You have tuning the engine, checking for loose or broken pieces on the plane, and all the little things to know about on how and whya plane flies. You can read and fly sims all day long but the one on one instruction from a instrucor cannot be beat

Whatever way you chose, please always remember to think safety first, both the people and surroundings around you and yourself. R/C planes are allot of fun but can be extremely dangerous, even the smaller electric park fliers can do some serious damage to fingers, toes, eyes, etc...

I am not trying to turn you off from flying, but I am just trying to get you to think about safety as your first priority

Learning to fly on your own can and has been done succesfully

RE: First Solo
 

An instructor will help you:

1) Keep all of your fingers
2) Keep your plane in one piece
3) Learn to fly much more quickly
4) Have much more fun learning to fly

These are all very desireable things to have, so I'd highly recommend finding a good instructor if you can :D.

RE: First Solo
 

Guys, I recommend instructors, too, but look at his address (Indonesia) and read his post. He can't find one.

Sure4Sure, many people who post here are self taught. Everyone has advice about how to do it without crashing a lot of planes. For one, use the simulator you have, until you can do takeoffs, landings, loops, rolls, inverted flight (all the way around the circuit) and lots of touch and go's.

Then, decide what kind of plane and power you want. Some will recommend balsa/glow, some will recommend electric RTF's, and frankly, you can learn on either one. My recommendation is to buy a good flying plane for the flying characteristics - NOT the crashworthiness. I know people who are self taught with a SoarStar electric (it's like a Wingo, with better power.) Some will recommend a Kadet with a glow engine, and I endorse that, too.

You choose the plane, according to what's available for you. Just make sure you have a big open space to fly it. I recommend you take a friend as a "spotter" - to alert you to people who walk onto the field when you are flying. You do not want to crash into someone.

Good luck,
Dave Olson

RE: First Solo
 

The first time I took my plane up (by myself), I had a very clear plan of what I wanted to accomplish. Knowing what you want to do is very important. I also used a trick I learned in my flight training, visualize over and over what you're going to do. Imagine things going wrong and know how to correct them. Do this over and over...while you're watching tv, trying to fall asleep....
Here is what I wanted to accomplish on my first flight.

1) Take off with a lot of speed.
2) Shallow climb with shallow turns until I was up quite high.
3) Determine the stall characteristics of my plane at altitude.
4) Decend and practice approaches (If an approach looked good, I planed on setting it down for a full stop landing) MAINTAINING SUFFICIENT AIRSPEED WAS A HUGE GOAL HERE. There was no way I was going to stall.
5) Land the plane, nothing fancy. Just get it down in one piece. Oh, and a big mental note I kept going over and over during my approaches, "no sharp turns".

Everything worked great and I still have my plane all in one piece. Good luck!

RE: First Solo
 

Thank you to all for the reply, i have a pt-40 trainer and an os 46 ax. I practice with the sim very often but i would love to fly a real rc plane, i will take all your advice they are all very good advice. I will fly the plane when i'm a thousand percent confidence.

Thank you very much.

RE: First Solo
 

I'm sorry you don't have access to an instructor, but it sounds like you are taking the right approach. Keep practicing on the simulator until you KNOW you can fly the real one. At least then you'll have a good chance of really doing it. ;)

Good luck, and have fun.
Dennis-

RE: First Solo
 

sure4sure, good luck and make sure you let us all know your progress!