An observation
 

A friend of mine(one of my roommates actualy) whos is considering getting a sailplane or a 3ch parkflyer(he has stroke damage to his left hand and couldnt fly a four channel plane) were talking last night, and i came up with kind of a funny classification system for beginners coming into the hobby. Some of you older more experienced guys tell me if it rings true or not


The "learn on a 1/4 scale p-51, at the school yard" phase:
Ok, admit, EVERYONE who looks into this hobby starts with this phase. Might not be a p-51, but when you first start looking at planes, You want the biggest and coolest toy on the market. Your also firmly convinced this cant be that hard and it will be a short easy matter of learning:).


Now heres were you break down into the individual categorys, I came up wiht three:

The "ok so i cant do it alone.......What now" group:
These folks are the ones whove admitted to themselves, "alright scratch the large plane, scratch the by myself, as much as i dont want to im gonna get help". these folks do the old tried and true method of an instructor and a trainer, and tend to succede.

The "OK the big plane is to hard to fly, but Ill get this easy gadget ladden thing and do it myself, its easy":
These folks are still to stubborn to just take help and have to do it the hard way. They seem to be the ones most famed for"i did it on the simulator perfectly i can fly the real thing". They also tend to be the most willing to buy the new toys and gadgets on the market. ALthough some are moderatly succesful, most tend to trash the plane and sell the scraps, or end upp going to a field and getting help.

The "DONT WANNA, DONT WANNA, DONT WANNA!!!" group:
And here we get the hard heads. These folks are bound and determined there going to do it there way, and nobody, no matter the experience level, is going to tell them there wrong. If you say "tried and true" your an old fart trying to stop there fun. While the most fun to watch make arses of themselves, they usualy tend to destroy the most expensiv stuff



Well theres the Aggie beginner classification method. I do realise that SOME folks are self taught by force and not by choice, but i think that pretty generaly clumps them into groups(note, I'm tlaking RANK new guys here, not the "i can fly so now what".....wich is pretty much were i fall).

thought that might get a luagh since noone seem to care about my build thread [&:]

RE: An observation
 

What build thread...:D;):) Just kidding

How about:

I have more money than I know what to do with and I can do it on my own syndrome.

RE: An observation
 

sound about right but the first group should was me but it was more like before i damage $500 of equipment i am going to get help and learn to fly first.this was when minimum wage was $2.00/hr so we are talking 250 hour of labor to buy the radio,kit,engine and accessories.
just a note for your friend.,radio south can build or modify a custom radio,sounds like a single stick may work if he can cradle the box in his left arm,throttle may be a problem as the left fingers move the slide type lever but maybe radio south could intall it in the knob of the stick where the rudder trim is,this is on the kraft single sticks.

RE: An observation
 

You have a build thread ?[sm=spinnyeyes.gif] just kidding,

I like the fact that you brought this up. The categories really overlap each other if you really think about the content about the categories.

Like category one : I believe every newbie looks for help before learning to fly , I had offers but could not drive the amount of hours necessary to meet the people offering. So then I went to

category two : I bought what I thought I could fly and kept crashing and rebuilding until I learned , but keep in mind it's harder to fly a smaller plane than it is a bigger plane which brings me to

category three : I started buying bigger planes but still only received advice , never hands on help. From electric to glow and NOW the biggest plane I fly has a .70 four stroke on the nose.

So due to the fact not every one gets help with every new plane , mainly only advice, before flying the new plane, makes all of the categories over lap at one time or another. ;)

RE: An observation
 

yeah they do to an extent....those are more like degress on the "hard-head" to "old school" range i guess :)

RE: An observation
 

EXACTLY, I have met many RC pilots in my walk of life and allot of them are OLD SCHOOL CATS. They didn't have anyone to help them along the way, the internet to research RC stuff, no buddy box, etc. But they are not considered HARD HEADS.

So I don't classify myself as an OLD SCHOOL rc pilot, I was definitely a HARD HEAD in the beginning because of the information I had available , vs the way I went about learning to fly . But in the end I can't blame anybody for my RC Pilot actions but myself. Not allot of people can say that. Most will say , well that was what I was taught. ;)

Small price to pay to have full confidence in my teacher. [:-]

RE: An observation
 

And just what were you and your roommate smoking when you made these "Obsevations"? :D

RE: An observation
 

That's pretty good, aggie.

I think there are probably categories for instructors, as well as students. One of the old school guys where I fly most is of the opinion a student needs to break some balsa in order to commit to the hobby.

I'm of the opinion that my job (when I'm instructing) is to preserve the student's initial investment past the instruction period. There are other instruction objectives, but the idea of all that (in my opinion) is to get the student flying solo before losing that initial investment.

I read some complaints online here, that students are beset with rules and procedures when all they want to do is fly. That's probably true, if their instructor has the same objective as me. There are other approaches.

Good luck,
Dave Olson

RE: An observation
 

not smoking just on the phone with Jim and jack

RE: An observation
 

Those are the ones that I don't want flying near me.

RE: An observation
 

Ill second that motion