Who has taught themself?
 

I am curious as to how many people have succesfully taught themself. Back when i started this hobby 4 years ago I baught a slowtick and quicly learned the concepts of flight. I then baught a nitro trainer. I damaged it here in there but it was only from takeing off and landing on a less than ideal strip. A 2 lane road with trees on either side. I also might add, it was at 8000ft and always had a cross wind. LOL. Somehow, i got the hang of it and was able to do next to perfect landings. Since, i have moved my flying location to phoenix with a strip that is 50-60ft wide. Quite the difference.

I am not suggesting that any begginer try to fly there plane without a experienced flyer helping. Just curious if there is anyone else out there.

RE: Who has taught themself?
 

hi, i to am self taught, i learned on a nexstar. i played with the sim for awhile, read up the manual to set it up right. then went and found a really big field. the first few flights where shakey, and i broke a few props on the landings. but i slowly got better and now i haven't looked back. since then i've bought a few other planes and fly all the time. so your not alone in being self taught, though it is harder and probably cost more in parts(from rough landings or crashes)but it can be done.

RE: Who has taught themself?
 

I tought myself. I started out with an old birdi trainer years ago. It didn't last long. My next plane was a Cadet that someone had donated to me. It had been crashed and repaired quite a few times. The covering looked like Dolly Parton's Coat of Many Colors. My 3rd plane was a skylark kit. I think having to put the kit together and do all the work myself made me appreciate it a little more. I was more mindfull of my actions, and it lasted quite a long time. I think I still have the old Kraft radio I used in those planes. It can be somewhat costly doing it by yourself. I wish they had corrugated plastic beck then...

RE: Who has taught themself?
 

Every six months or so, a thread with this topic gets started by someone who hasn't learned about the search function. You can find at least ten in the archives, if you search.

Or were you just wanting to announce that you had taught yourself?

RE: Who has taught themself?
 

I bought a HobbyZone SuperCub in the spring and with some online help from WattFlyer website I flew it but when I started in Glow planes I joined a club and had an instructor teach me (actually 4 different pilots helped me also)

Mark

RE: Who has taught themself?
 

Just about every conceivable topic has been discussed here ad nauseam. If everyone used the search function there would be very little activity on this forum. RC Universe would shrivel up and die. Lighten up!

RE: Who has taught themself?
 

yea, scar get over yourself.

RE: Who has taught themself?
 

i was completely self taught as well, no, well almost no simulator time (about 4-5 min. in total at a hobby shop on a display computer loaded w/ realflight) so i bought a used hobbico superstar on ebay from a guy in illinois name of dave, just a super guy by the way fedex crushed a wing and he helped me through the claims process, writing them letters etc. but to no avail they would not reward my claim even though they crushed the wing..DONT SHIP FEDEX!! but it taught me how to repair everything from sanding/shaping and placing balsa gluing and covering before i even got it in the air! after i got it repaired i made a great first flight, but by the time i got to the second flight i was so shaky that i drove it straight in after making a couple of rounds i dumb thumbed it dead in.. not the last time either, i repaired it and crashed it a total of 12 times! i finally got the hang of it, but the plane was more glue, staples and paint stir sticks than balsa haha.. i got very very comfortable with the superstar and one evening had it in a steep outside/inverted dive and the wings just folded up on me and that was that! irreparable, so i joined the local club, as i had been flying on my grandfathers hayfield, which was actually a great place to fly! wide open and smooth ground everywhere with tall thick grass to catch the plane if something goes wrong, i imagine his cattle wound up eating some balsa wood that got rolled up in the hay due to all 12 of my initial crashes but its good fiber what the heck.. so i joined the club and a guy had a debonair spad that he gave me, but i never could get the cg right so it was a hard plane to fly always tail heavy so it was a fight to keep it in the air, so my wife bought me a h9 cessna and i flew the crap out of it, i mean several hours of strictly air time, most of that doing touch and goes, hammerheads, low near stall passes inverted loops, and all the other basic stuff that it would do until finally after lots of flying time it reached its expiration date and the control horn tore out of the elevator during a steep dive and she went dead in, hard! so i revived the old spad and plan to fly it until i can afford a h9 twist.

RE: Who has taught themself?
 

Scars OK, he is just lettin' that guy know where a ton of good info is hidin'.

RE: Who has taught themself?
 

Every six months or so someone is genuinely curious, and doesn't want to be chided for reopening a dead topic, or simply didn't find it with a quick search.

Had he searched and found it, then posted to resurrect it, someone would have blasted him for that too.. You just cant win with some people can you?

RE: Who has taught themself?
 

Like I said, Scar is an idiot. Ignore him.

RE: Who has taught themself?
 

yes, with some people you can't win either way[:@]

RE: Who has taught themself?
 

I taught myself with a FMS simulator and a Electrifly Yak 55 Flight Flex. I was surprised to find that the plane flew better than the sim and i olny started crashing when i started doing stupid things like 1 ft inverted passes on the 10th flight.

Stick 40:eek:

RE: Who has taught themself?
 

I will reluctantly add my name to the self taught. I tried to go with a club but I ended up know more about engine tuning than my trainer did. After I saw him crash his plane in about 30 seconds of flight I decided I would have just as much luck on my own. I did very well after practicing for 50 or so hours on FMS with my transmitter. It wasn't until I started trying crazy stuff that I crashed, like flying in 30 mph wind with an alpha and trying to flat spin it and stuff like that. I would suggest starting out with a trainer at a club. If you want to go it alone in a safe area just remember my number one rule for beginners *finesse everything*

RE: Who has taught themself?
 

:D

RE: Who has taught themself?
 

He sounds perfectly qualified.

RE: Who has taught themself?
 

Simulator.

RE: Who has taught themself?
 

I also learn without an instructor. However, I did many hours of practice ( 30-45 min. everyday since three months ) on Real Flight G3.5 simulator. My plane is a Hangar 9 Solo Sport and it fly so much easier than the PT40 on the G3.5 simulator. I was really surprise by how easy it was to fly and land compare to the simulator. Next year I will join our local club but the season was almost over for this year and I wanted to start flying so that's why I start by myself. My friend also learn by himself but with a Nexstar RTF. I will soon get my second plane which is a Neptune ARF and I will fly off water with it next year but again alone because it will be at our chalet which is more than an hour from our club field. I plan to learn with an instructor for any other planes I might have ( as long as it's not an other seaplane ). So far I didn't crash and all my landing where almost always perfect but I am going very slowly with my attempt. I don't want to make any move that I might not be ready for it. I practice a move many hours on the simulator before attempting it. I think that a good simulator, right high wings trainer and some patience are the key ingredient for a sucessful first flight. One should take in note that the competence of a flyer can vary greatly from one to an other...an instructor is the safe way to learn for sure.

Séb

RE: Who has taught themself?
 

I taught myself the first time around, 20 years ago. The next two times I started back up I made sure I had an instructor.

RE: Who has taught themself?
 

although my first couple of flights were with an experienced rc pilot(out of state), once i returned home i was on my own. due to the fact that i did not know how to tune an engine my next few flights ended shortly after the engine died after takeoff. i was able to coast to a landing many times without crashing. i definetly would have crashed if i would have achieved an altitude of more than 20 feet. eventually i found a field around home and got someone to help with the engine tuning. i still continued to fly without help but i crashed a lot.

RE: Who has taught themself?
 

I am self taught. I learned on a Falcon 56 back in 1971. The second plane was a Super pronto followed by a Top Flite headmaster. The radio of choice was a MRC mark 5 which I still have. Good Luck, Dave

RE: Who has taught themself?
 

The one thing a simulator will NOT do is teach you to fly safely in the presence of other flyers or spectators. I "flew" a single channel ½A trainer back in the '60s but really only learned how to keep it upwind.

When I got back into this hobby for good a few years ago I sought a modern trainer aircraft (the Sig LT-40), a reliable engine (Thunder Tiger 46 Pro) and computer radio (Futaba 6XAs). My son and I built the kit. I was an experienced kit builder so it was built correctly. We sought the services of one of the club's instructors and learned the do's and don'ts of flying on a controlled field with perhaps 4 or 5 other modelers in the air.

Yes, you can learn to drive a model airplane around in the sky and perhaps also keep it out of the ground. Do everyone a favor and learn to fly safely.

RE: Who has taught themself?
 

I`m self taught . Started a year ago this month by building a GP Piper Cub .20 , learned to fly on it and still have it. To date , I have and fly a LT40 , Twist .40, 4* .40 , P-51 Mustang , Sig SSE , GP SkyBolt and a TF Corsair .60 .
Was it easy ? Heck no! I paid my dues and learned alot and would have been way ahead to have hooked up with an instructor , but , thats not the way I do things. I will admit, that I learned alot from RCU, and if I did have an instructor , I found it here , Tx gang.

RE: Who has taught themself?
 

This fall marked 6 years since I taught myself to fly. Bought an LT-40, and headed to the clubs new flying field. It was a gorgeous day, and my friend was going to meet me to take it up the first time and trim her out for me. As I was taxiing around, waiting, the LT-40 suddenly became airborne. I throttled back, and let it land in some tall grass on the other side of an irrigation ditch. Luckily there was no damage. When my friend showed up, he did take it up for me, but i finished the flight and landed. He left, and I had 4 more flights that day. Been hard core addicted to building and flying ever since.

RE: Who has taught themself?
 

Self taught forum user. :eek: :D

Good decisions come from experience. Experience comes from bad decisions.

Ask on the R/C Car forum to see how many frustrated fliers ended up there after they gave up on airplanes.

I tried to teach myself 4-channel glow powered (with a Kadet MkII) 25 years ago after years of free-flight, control line and 2-channel gliders. I couldn't afford the tuition at the School of Hard Knocks and sold off what I had left. Back in 2002 a friend talked me into joining a club/flight school as he had bought a trainer package. Big difference.

I know there are personality types who are very methodical and careful and can learn on their own. Trouble is it costs about $400 off the top to see if that applies to you.

You can't teach yourself. You can only learn on your own by your own successes and failures. Teachers impart knowledge they have. If you have no knowledge, you can't teach it to yourself or anyone else.

RE: Who has taught themself?
 

I am among the ranks of the self-learned. I'm also one of those methodical, nitpicky types. I think many years of fiddling with r/c cars helped too.

I had a lesson or two when I was around nine on my father's telemaster--buddy boxes weren't invented yet. I tried again with a two channel glider in high school, and got to the point that I could control the plane the 45 seconds I could keep it in the air off a high start.

Then, a few years out of college, I was flipping through one of my father's AMA mags while visiting and saw ads for the (then)new GWS tiger moth and pico cub. I picked up the cub, my friend bought the tiger moth, and we decided the instructions in the box were enough to get us flying.:eek: Somehow, we both learned to fly those flitty little things in a dimly lit parking lot...at night...in the dead of winter.

In retrospect, it's like we were TRYING to stack the odds against our successfully learning to fly:) Anyway, after learning to fly that cub, I put together a Kadet LT-25 and rejoined the club. I let the instructor maiden the plane for me, but after trimming it out, he handed me the transmitter and walked away after watching me fly for a minute. That was about 5~6 years ago and I've been advancing my skills ever since.

RE: Who has taught themself?
 

my first plane and flight were in the same day , 2 1/2 months ago, this past september. i bought a hangar 9 pulse xt pnp, a compatible radio set and the general field equipment under the cautious recommendation of the store owner. i flew it 2 laps around the field and then i found some powerlines that ended my day, but that fueled my desire for more. that was 7 active ready planes and 3 sim programs ago.. flying great now adays with regards to all facets of the hobby. tuning a new 4 stroke now and flying in high rate, all the while grabbing info everywhere i go to add to what i figure out myself. windows century of flight before that. 22 yrs of army aviation before that.
initially, flying helicopters on the stores simulator, spawned my drive to cross into fixed wing in a hurry. have'nt looked back yet. but, getting better on the heli sims when time allows.

thanks,

RE: Who has taught themself?
 

I did on rotary wing, but I also paid for it.

I'm building an Elec. Cub now after being out
of the hobby for 22 years. I will join a club
and get an Instructor for learning on any
fixed wing.


Bob


dignlivn

RE: Who has taught themself?
 

What do they say,

"Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards. "

Very applicable here.

RE: Who has taught themself?
 

Self Taught. Borrowed Real Flight G3 from a friend for a month. Then got eager and bought a cheap 4 channel RTF foamie (Hobbico Cessna 182). Probably not the best plane to start with but definately taught me how to really control and handle a plane real fast.

2nd plane about a month later was a GP Lancair ES EP. Again very aggressive second plane for me. But I learned how to land hand and do many basic acrobatics with the brushless setup.

Now have two 60+" glows (Shoestring and Lanier Ultimate Biplane)

It is definately possible to learn on your own, but I would have much rather had some coaching during my learning experience. Some people just have a little more natural ablility than others.

I have close to a year of flying experience now and I am currently training a friend of mine on a NexStar with a buddy box.

RE: Who has taught themself?
 

Taught myself to fly over 20 years ago with a foam cessna w/ an Enya .15 that my dad gave me. Now that I want to teach my son to fly I have been looking at the Nexstar. djcmeeks, how is the nexstar working out for your friend?

RE: Who has taught themself?
 

flaminheli,

So far so good. The plane has been doing very well. It is very stable and is hard to stall. I have seen another guy at the field with one. His plane has taken quite a beating but still runs well. Since I have been on a buddy box with my friend, his plane has yet to see any abuse, but I know it will take it once he starts attempting landings.

Two things I noticed.

1. I personally don't like the AFS(Active Flight Stabilization) system. To an experienced pilot it feels like the plane is fighting you over control. If a beginer were to fly the plane solo, I can see how this would be of great help if they got in trouble. However, on a buddy box system, that is what I am there for. So we just disconnected the AFS all-together.

2. The .46 os engine provides great power on this plane, but we have run into problems with running the recommended 10% fuel. There is another guy at my field who had the same problem. So we are both running 15% and everything runs great.

RE: Who has taught themself?
 

yeah the 15% will help any engine here in the south where it is eternally muggy and hot even now in the middle of november it is in the 80's here in tx. so 15% all the way!

RE: Who has taught themself?
 

I also am self taught. I did however fly the plane around experienced flyers. It was a Super Cub and I started in Dec. 06. I then tried various other Elec. planes such as the mini Edge. Had a deal at LHS 480 bruchless and plane for 89.00. Crashed it fairly quick got another plane and did the same. Got another and still did the same. Decided I was pretty good then so I got a Stick with a .60 and alot of wing. Flew it fine from takeoff to landing. But flying the Super Cub so much i did not have alot of rudder exp., and hit a fence after a beautiful landing just turned wrong way. Repaired it and in two days was flying it once again and have not crashed it since. I know in i guess 11mnths. have several gas planes from the Stick to a Sundowner and also areobatic type such as a Frenzy. I also have several Elec. that i fly and have become pretty fair in that i can get them back on the ground even in a pretty good crosswind. If you do teach yourself the Super Cub is very easy to learn on in that a hot glue gun and some foam safe CA and you can fix it in just a matter of min. usually. Then go to a big wing something. If you to gas or elec. just make sure it has wide long higer up on the fuse wings. Probabaly top wings if at all possible. Then just take your time and practice practice practice. Landing is the hardest thing. So takeoff come around and land ALOT. The actual flying part high up is not near what landing is. lol. Good luck and try to take your time. Make sure your plane is right everytime. Check it out good after every flight this is a little time consuming but making sure your servo rod is not falling out, or your motor is loose, or even a wheel nut not loose will save you alot in the long run. AND HAVE FUN. Oh and get ready to spend some bucks learning lol. It is addicting and expensive learning. Everyone I have met that flys anything has had a crash and destroyed planes. So be aware that this can happen. But again GOOD LUCK to those that go it alone. AND a simulator is well worth the money. Kids love them also. My 10yr. old grandson played on mine I bought him a Super Cub also and first time out he flew it from takeoff to landing 5 different times (his still looks new) KIDS lol.

RE: Who has taught themself?
 

This is cool guys. I guese i am not alone. :D

RE: Who has taught themself?
 

i taught myself by taking apart an air powered air-hog then adding servos......short flying time but it worked

RE: Who has taught themself?
 

Thats pretty darn cool. How did i fly with the extra weight? I remember getting some pretty long flights on my old airhogs. Like 2-3 minutes. They were alot of fun but I lost most of them as the were unsterable :D

RE: Who has taught themself?
 

i used micro servos and increased the prop also added a mini engine [from those fans you get in a dollar store] to add a little kick when landing,the body was made of sanded insulation foam although it had lots of stall in flight later on, i started to look into making a better air powered engine but, i gave up on it and bought an ARF.

now im trying to build a plane from scratch with a $.99 motor i got off my friend [pretty strong one too.] after i accomplish that im going to put a website of how to make a plane from scratch [with household materials]