Advice Please! :)
 

Ok, I'm 14 and from the UK. I would like to start flying RC airplanes.
I've never flown one before and would like to purchase a cheap RC plane.
I have found one on eBay and would like to know if...

A) This will be a good starter plane.
B) It can perform tricks like barrol rolls, flying upside down etc.
C) Its at a good price.
D) Will it be good for years to come.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/REMOTE-CONTROL...QQcmdZViewItem



Thanks in advanced,
rj1991!

RE: Advice Please! :)
 

I don't agree, you should start with a trainer.
Since it haves only 3 channel, probably dont have ailerons. You will not be able to roll!
I agree
No. This is a small plane. It would be very unstable with wind, and you will want much more.
80% of ebay products are.... low quality.
You welcome.

Just my 2 cents.

RE: Advice Please! :)
 

Oh ok. Thanks for the reply. Can you explai n channels as I don't understand them..
Infact I don't understand anything about Rc planes lol. What is a trainer?
Could you find me a good starter plane at a fair price which I can obtain in the UK?
Thanks

RE: Advice Please! :)
 

http://www.rchobby.co.uk/ready_to_fl...ger_shark.html

Would that be any good?
same questions again?
Would it be able to perform stunts? Take off from the ground? etc

RE: Advice Please! :)
 

I think that you are in the wrong place asking the right questions. [:@]

First off, you do not have to be rich to be in RC modelling, BUT you can not be POOR! As you are so young, unless you father is going to get in it with you - you will find this a hard hobby to pursue. Then there is the matter of transportation to flying sites - a bicycle just will not cut it ... [&o]

IF you are truely interested - get your parents to take you to a local club and talk to the fellows there. They will give you all of the answers that you need about types of Aircraft, local prices, places to fly etc. They may even have a trainer available at the club to teach you on.

Take advantage of the local clubs, as most often they do have a member that is willing to take on students - YOU CANNOT LEARN HOW TO FLY REMOTE AC BY YOURSELF!

Good Luck

RE: Advice Please! :)
 

Do trainers charge? Atm I nly have about £450 and my dad can drive me to places when
he and i want to so that should be ok. Why wouldn't it be possible to learn to fly an RC on my own
if I did much research?

RE: Advice Please! :)
 

RJ1991,
It's not that you CAN'T learn to fly by yourself. More accurately is that trying to teach yourself to fly will result in many expensive crashes of your airplane. You need to realize that as soon as that plane is in the air, almost every mistake is going to result in the plane hitting the ground in an uncontrolled manner. Also, another thing to think about is reading my signature line - "The take off is optional, the landing is mandatory". What the means is that when you take off, you are committed to have to land it at some point. And the landing is usually the hardest part of flying for any student to learn.

When you get an instructor he can keep you from crashing your plane. Nearly all instructors will use a buddy box system to teach you to fly. What that is a system for training students with. The instructor will have the actual "live" radio that controls the airplane. This radio will be attached by a cord to a "dummy" radio. As long as the instructor holds in the trainer switch on the "live" radio your "dummy" box will be flying the plane. When you get into trouble all the instructor has to do is release the switch and he will have control plane, thus letting him save the plane from crashing when you make a mistake. I've been teaching students to fly using a buddy box for 6 years now (well over 40 students taught) and I've never had a student's plane crash while we were flying it. Most every instructor does not charge for training students.

Your best first bet would be to find a local hobby shop and talk to the people there. They should be able to point you in the direction of a local club, or at least somebody who can teach you to fly. I'd wait to buy the plane until you make those contacts as they can tell you what would be a good trainer plane to start with. This will keep you from buying a plane that will be next to worthless as a trainer, or buying a plane that is too much to learn on. I don't know what the exchange rate is, but the amount of money you say you have seems to be more than enough to get into the hobby with a good trainer set up.

As for the two planes that you listed, don't waste your money. The first plane is nothing more than a toy. The second plane is going to be too advanced for you to learn on. You asked about the channels and what they do. All Radio Control radios have channels. Each channel controls a different function on the aircraft such as throttle, elevator, ailerons, and rudder. Most basic trainers will have 4 channels with those channels being throttle, elevator, rudder, and aileron. The throttle controls the speed of your engine, elevator controls the plane going up and down, the rudder controls turning the plane left and right, and the ailerons control rolling the plane (these will also be used to steer the plane left and right). Most 3 channels planes will not have ailerons on them. Without ailerons you can still steer left and right, but won't be able to do the more advanced aerobatics like you want to do.

I hope that this information helps you. Please feel free to ask anymore questions you may have.

Ken

RE: Advice Please! :)
 

Thanks mate!
I really hope I can get into flying as I'm really excited :)
So I will see if I can find a trainer. Thanks again

RE: Advice Please! :)
 

RJ1991-----

Listen to RCKEN-- I dont thinkn anyone could explain it any better. As he said im not sure of how much money you have Im not sure what L450 is in maerican money. However visit your local hobby shop and get with a club. That will get you in the right direction. I can tell you this, if you try to learn on your own and go thru a few crashes you will give up on the hobby and get to the point of saying ( I TRIED IT AND I CANT LEARN ) so im done with it. I have heard this same quote about rc helicopters Fliers go from planes to helis and try to learn on thier own and then crash and say they cant learn. Flying is kinda like riding a bike once you learn you will never forget and if you keep flying you will get more experience and be a better flier.

In my opnion the LT 40 is the best trainer.

I flew mine this morning.
Love it

RE: Advice Please! :)
 

I don't fink there is any teacher people who can teach me in my area :(
Dunno how to find one if there is

RE: Advice Please! :)
 

I agree...A trainer is the way to start off with.

RE: Advice Please! :)
 

Hi!
All countries (most anyway) have a national model flying organization board.
In Sweden it's called: Sveriges modellflyg förbund (SMFF), with around 8500 members. In the US it's called the American Modelers Academy (AMA) and has 150.000 members
There is also such an organization in Britain, called British Model Flying Association (BMFA) with 32.000 organized model fliers.
Have a look there and see if you could find any clubs near your place.
http://www.bmfa.org/

Regards!
Jan K
Sweden

RE: Advice Please! :)
 

Find the nearest club

http://www.bmfa.org/clubs/clist.php

RE: Advice Please! :)
 

rj1991, If you have a model field in your area, then i would nearly gaurantee that the club that flies there will have at least one instructor who will teach you how to fly. So go to your local hobby shop and make enquires , they will tell you where it is , and most likely who to contact there also. So please make these enquiries before you buy anything, set up a time with your instructor and learn to fly. It is very rare that someone can teach themselves today . It is a wonderful hobby , that will give you a lifetime of enjoyment , and it doesn't take long to learn and fly solo. The flying members at the field will tell you the best trainer to get and which radio to match it with. So take note of what RcKen has stated above and you will be well on your way to many years of fun and friendship.
the_madgenius , instructor down-under , Australia

RE: Advice Please! :)
 

Wow thanks, I found a club in my area now! And they allow under 18s:D
It also says they do train people on buddy box w000t!
But I don't think the training starts for awhile so might not be able to get straight into flying but hay! I'm one step closer :)

RE: Advice Please! :)
 

Now that you have found a club, GO TALK TO THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Give the contact person a phone call and ask questions. I know winter is upon us, so now is the time to actually get your plane and get it put together. Getting one now will also give you the chance to ask questions as you assemble your plane to make sure you do it right, rather than rushing to get it built and into the air. That's how mistakes are made and planes are lost. Now you have my two pence:D

RE: Advice Please! :)
 

The only way to start off...

RE: Advice Please! :)
 

I don't understand r/c planes though like what its them and what to buy etc.
I need help looking for a plane which I can buy in the UK which will be easy/cheap to buy and repair.
Would be nice to find a local shop so i'll try contact the club and ask some stuff. :)

RE: Advice Please! :)
 

Have a look at www.srcm.co.uk

They have some trainer deals for not a lot compared with the £450 that you have.

Also look here : http://www.rcaircraftmodels.co.uk/799_1.html

Model plus radio plus engine for £189 !! But the srcm deals may be better, esp the Tutor 40 with OS 46 and Futaba 6EXA

You will need to know if the club supports Hitec or Futaba with their buddy box options

RE: Advice Please! :)
 

Ah thanks for the links mate :D
That 189.99 Deal looks good. But by the looks of it they don't do spares for repair correct me if i'm wrong.
http://www.rcaircraftmodels.co.uk/644_1_11481.html
Is that any good or is that a toy like plane?

Thanks

RE: Advice Please! :)
 

Although they may not have the spares, other places might. Their RC nitro car spares have been easy to obtain (don't try flying at night LOL) but you should check as far as the trainer is concerned.

This electric model is easy to fly as an all-in-one : HobbyZone Firebird Commander Ready to Fly Aircraft (HBZ2500)

You should be able to get spare parts easily enough - wing is about £12. We bought two of these and they are ok if there is little or no wind. Don't be tempted to go with much wind or it will fly away or go down ! You are limited to how much you can do with it. The Slo-V has a decent review here by Greg Covey. Someone may be able to let you know if this can be used as spares for a more advanced model later on (but still only three channel). It's quite big and should be fairly stable. You could fly this on your own if you were careful and there was no wind. You need some height to allow for errors, enough space to fly it and you need to be gentle with the controls.

I agree that joining a club with a nitro buddy box enabled model may give better results in the long term.

RE: Advice Please! :)
 

You know the 189.99 plane you showed me. Is that powered by gas or nitro or w/e they call it or is it electric?
As I want an electric plane.
Isn't that firebird commander ready to fly plane a bit of a toy?

RE: Advice Please! :)
 

You've found a nearby club, go talk to them, meet the instructors, find out if there is a certain kind of Trainer that he would preferr to teach you on. So far everything you've put up seems to be electrics, and there's nothing wrong with that if that's the way you want to go. I personally preferr glow power over electric. But that's just me, but as others have allready suggested to you go talk to the club first. I know you're anxious to go & buy your new plane, we all were! But go talk to them first & shop around. I'll bet you'll find that you can buy twice as much real plane in the form of a glow-powered trainer as you can in an electric toy for around the same amount of money if you'll just be patient & go talk to the people in your area that are allready flying first. They'll know where the local hobby shops are & what's available in your area. You must remember that the majority of us are in the USA. So what is available to us may vary a great deal from what is readily available to you. It sounds like you probably have enough money to get a pretty good set up to start out on if you don't waste any of it on the wrong plane/equipment, so go see them first! Good luck.


Mark

RE: Advice Please! :)
 

That was well stated, not to mention very accurate. RJ1991, I have to agree with the last post. So far, you have been showing us toy airplanes and park flyers. If you go to the local club with one of those, they would probably laugh you right off the field. CONTACT THE CLUB BEFORE YOU LOOK AT ANY OTHER AIRPLANES. We all know you can't wait to get started, but show a little patience. The club will still be there tomorrow, so don't go and rush to buy something for the sake of buying something. Let the club members help you pick out a good plane/radio/power system combo that will last you for a while. The stuff you have shown us so far won't last you very long, due to crashing them or outgrowing them, so don't waste your money on them. By letting the club members help you, you will probably spend less and get more since they know what they are looking at, AND YOU DON'T. Now then, you have been told the same thing by several of us, so start listening.

RE: Advice Please! :)
 

rj1991, As Jaka mentioned above , there is a web site for you to look at , and i will repeat the site , http://www.bmfa.org/ now open up this site and scroll down the page till you find the link to "visit our beginners FAQ section" In there you will read a massive amount of information on how to get started into flying r/c aircraft. You will need to know what mode of transmitter the club uses , as there is a differnce between mode 1 and mode 2, this will be explained to you when you go to the club field and meet some of the fliers there. This is critical as you don't want to turn up with a mode that no one uses in that club. Also remember that small electric aircraft cannot handle much wind at all ,and on this note i would recommend a 40sized trainer,around 5 foot wingspan, and the club members will tell you what is available in the local hobby shop to fit in with your budget. Keep us informed on what you find out and what you buy , and remember never be afraid to ask questions, that is what this forum is for. WIshing you all the best for the New Year and hope to hear you are flying soon
the_madgenius instructor downunder, Australia