First Plane?
 

Hello Everyone,

I have been reading on the forum and not really looking for the answer I need.

I am looking for a RTF Airplane that comes with everything pretty much ready to go out and test the skies.

Is there a kit that would get me hooked?

At present I'm not particular on the building end of things, maybe down the road.

First Plane?
 

The very best plane for right now is none at all. Instead find your local club. Circulate and meet the folks, let it be known that you wish to buy equipment and get started. Virtually any club will get you an introductory flight(s). This is a huge advantage by connecting with folks you will be flying with first and you can be guided to appropriate airplanes and equipment that will make your initiation to this wonderful sport not only less expensive from inappropriate sidetracks but also far easier to learn.

John

Good Idea...
 

But what if there is no club to help me out with this.

First Plane?
 

Try the AMA website.
There is likely a club within driving distance.
If not, the info at Howard Sullivan's site will be very helpful.

First Plane?
 

DJMic, welcome to the world of R/C! I hope this is going to be fun. If there isn't a club you can go to I would suggest that you start with an R/C simulator on your computer. It will let you get passed your first dozen or so crashes without spending any more money. The answer in the other post was warranted. VERY FEW people can teach themselves to fly R/C without spending a fortune in replacement airplanes!! :rolleyes: I've been teaching for six years now and I've only had one student, a full scale 727 captain be able to fly solo in one day. The major problem is that because the word "CONTROL" is part of R/C everyone feels they must be controlling something most of the time, when in reality virtually all good R/C trainers will fly them selves and the student only messes up what is a nice flight to begin with. IF YOU MUST have an ARF and MUST try to do it yourself, again go with a computer simulator first then get the "Hobbico Superstar Select". for around $290.00 street price. It has a good dual conversion radio and an engine that will fly it around with some confidence.

HTH email if you need more help
Tom

Already There...
 

Well I have been teaching myself 100% to this point.

And I have also been picking things up as I go...

www.mikesremotes.com

I have been using the RealFlight G2 on the computer with my Futaba 8UHF PCM1024 Controller.

I can fly the plane - landing is rough
I can hover the helicopter for about 2 min. then start to loose it.

I know I'm on my way but summer is approching and I want to get out and have some fun.
So I ordered the LT-40 that I see most people starting out with. And I guess I'll start there.

Thanks allot for the advise, I guess I should have updated you on what I have already learned to this point. Now that you know any other advise would be appreciated.

First Plane?
 

IMO the LT 40 is the BEST trainer around! And that's in either kit or ARF form. Add a good OS or super tiger .40 to .46 and you'll be good to go.

First Plane?
 

In the hanger is a LT40 Magnum 52 Fr St. Sky sport 4 CH . What a great Combo. Newbies love it on training night!!!

First Plane?
 

What do you mean by this statement?

First Plane?
 

If your planing to teach yourself have a look at www.spadtothebone.com youll find just about the cheapest and toughest planes around, you can build or buy ARF or do a search for combat armadillo trainer

First Plane?
 

I have a Lt40 that I give instruction on , On bewbie night. We have a great time . You can furnish your own plane our use mine , great fun.

First Plane?
 

How about a personal review of the Aerobird. Three channel plane from Hobbyzone from a new RCer, me. I am totally self taught and having a ball.

I was not interested in building. If I spent a month building and then wrecked it, I would be crushed. I wanted a RTF that could take some punishment.

I am a first timer. However I am also one of these guys that goes into intense
research when I get interested in something. After several months of research,
talking to people, flyers and non, I bought an Aerobird. It is a super value
but there are other good starters. Here are the plusses and minuses in my mind
of the Aerobird.

Very inexpensive and rugged for a three channel starter - $150-$170 RTF.
The plane comes complete and fully assembled. Charge the flight battery, put
on the wing, put the batteries in the transmitter and up you go! Even the
batteries for the transmitter are included.

New flyers like me are going to crash, so you don't want something costly to
start with. There is a full line of parts available at reasonable cost. You
can replace the whole main fuselage for $49 including the motor and all the
flight electronics. A wing is $15 and the tail is $7. So, if you crash badly
you can get everything for under $75 and you are back in the with a three
channel plane.

Batteries and charger:

The battery will run for a full 5-6 minutes at full throttle and 12-15 minutes+
at half throttle. Many planes in this class run 4-6
minutes. And unlike many of the 2 channel starters, it comes with a peak
charger that you can use in your car. If you pick up two spare batteries you
can stay in the air all day. A full charge takes about 40 minutes.

Another plane I liked was the Sky Scooter Pro, now the Pro II. You can get it as a base plane and motor and add your own electronics or get it ready to fly with a 72 MHZ Hittec 3 channel radio for about $150. This was my second choice to the Aerobird. I like it a lot!

The Aerobird also has an X-Pak hop up kit available for $30. It includes a 7
cell battery (the basic is 6) and a larger tail. This makes the plane faster
and more maneuverable. So, once you get good you can soup it up! I bought the
X-Pak when I bought mine. I will use the 7 cell as my second battery and save the tail for later.

WIND

All new flyers should start in winds under 5 MPH so that you are learning to fly the plan rather than fighting the wind. I didn't do that and crashed a lot because of the wind. However, now I am very comfortable flying this plane in 10-12 MPH winds. Handles it very well.

27 MHZ vs 72 MHZ Radio

The Aerobird uses a 27 MHZ radio which is assigned to general use for planes,
cars and boats; mostly low end stuff. There are only 6 available channels. So,
if you have a kid with a 27 MHZ RC car in the same area where you are flying, and he
is on the same channel you are on, and he is close enough, when he switches on
his transmitter, you will lose control of the plane and probably crash. Even
with 72 MHZ radio systems, this will happen if you get two flyers on the same
channel, but 72 MHZ is dedicated to airplanes. High end RC cars are on 75 MHZ
so they won't interfere.

The flight control is a single stick radio with rudder and elevator on the
stick. Throttle is on a slide on the left top. It is similar to a Futaba or
Hitec single stick arrangement. I find it very comfortable to use and other flyers who have tried it say they find it easy as well.

If you are going to join a club, check with them. Some clubs will not admit 27
MHZ based planes because they can't be flown with a buddy box, a training
system, like a dual controlled car, that is used for pilot training. After
long consideration I bought the Aerobird, but these are things I took into consideration.

Downed Plane Locator:

If you fly near woods, swamp, tall grass or places where the plane could go out of sight, get some kind of plane locator.

Here is a review of an Emergency Locator Beacon that illustrates its value
(this site is somewhat unreliable)
http://webhome.idirect.com/~arrowmfg...s/elb-revi.htm
Sounds like a good idea to me. Every plane I ever own will have some kind of
locator.

Here are three examples of locators:
http://www.customelectronics.co.uk/lma.htm
http://www.hobbico.com/accys/hcap0335.html
http://www.rcelectronics.bravepages.com/Locator.html

These won't wok on my Aerobird. I am using one of these:
http://www.keyringer.com

They look like a small clicker for your car door locks. They work by sound.
You click one of a pair which sends out a chirp that the second one hears and
answers. I place it on top of the wing under the rubber bands that hold
the wing. It balances nicely, and I can easily move it from plane to
plane..

Resources Aerobird, Sky Scooter Pro

Here is an internet site that sells the Aerobird. They also have a
link for a video of the plane flying:
http://www.parkflyers.com/html/aerobird.html

Here is a link to a review of the Aerobird:
http://www1.wildhobbies.com/news/de...w&articleid=853

As I said, my alternative plane was the Sky Scooter Pro. It had been about
$260 RTF, but they recently released the Sky Scooter Pro 2 at about $160 so
you might want to give it serious consideration.
http://www.servocity.com/ServoCity/...plane/sky_scoot
er_r_c_airplane.html
Videos
http://www.hitecrcd.com/Funtec/videos.htm

So, that's my evaluation of the Aerobird and why I purchased it. I fly as often as I can. I have about 20 flights on my plane at this point and am just loving it. My friend has a Wingo and says he likes flying my Aerobird so much he plans to get one too.

First Plane?
 

One major disadvantage of this type of setup is that the electronics cannot be easy used in other models. Remember this if you plane on progessing to more advanced models.

So if you buy an arebird or similiar package deal and want that second plane you need to buy all your electronics and motor again

Simple example:

1st Plane aero bird 170.00

2nd Plane Word Models super sports 40 ARF 99.00
entry level four ch radio 140.00
TT .46 engine 75.00

Approx cost of 2 planes 484.00

1st plane .40 RTF Trainer (Horizon alpha, Hobbico, Tower Hobbies etc) 300

2nd 2nd Plane Word Models super sports 40 ARF 99.00
Re-use radio and engine

Approx cost of 2 planes 399.00 Savings of about 85.00


Not saying you should do this just pointing out that after the initial investment if done correctly alot of gear can be reused thus reducing the cost of future planes

First Plane?
 

I am a self taught flier too. I think tower has a all in one Avistar kit for about $300. I didn't join any clubs or get any training. I did spend a lot of money. If you crash your Avistar bad enough you are going to have shell out another $90 to replace the plane. One thing to keep in mind. You are going to need a place to fly. Chances are if you find a good place, more than likely other flyers will be flying there. Just walk up and talk to them. After a year of flying I know a lot of flyers. We don't share a club, just a sweet spot to fly. I have yet to walk up to anyone flying there, that wasn't willing to talk. I would bet that most would be willing to help.

PS I forgot to add, good luck and don't give up. I have a ball flying.

First Plane?
 

This is definately true. I took this into consideration.

However, I will have two flyable planes. If I transfer engine and electroncis from first to second plane, only one can fly.

Seeing other club members come to the field with several planes I see that they often have several flyable planes at once. I am sure there may be planes that they have that can't be flown because they moved the motor and servos, but for the first two planes, I wanted to keep them both flying so, for me, this was not a concern. :)

First Plane?
 

Just understand that the cycle doesn't stop at plane number 2

I have 6 OS motors that are 18 yrs old and have been in many planes same goes for my electronics my newest tx is 4 years old and been 3 planes. I have servos that I bought with radios that are no longer legal but I still can use the servos.
My point was and is that when you justify the price of that type of plane you need to realize that the entire investment is for that one plane only. If you go the route I suggested you can re-use your gear. This simply makes your initial investment go farther.

First Plane?
 

Most if not all of the 2 and 3 chanel park fliers are toys, there rc gear is useless and some times ilegall if used in a "normal" type rc plane.
if you have the $150 odd for a park flier and it wont afect your spending on reusable rc gear then by all means buy one.
for my money if you want an electric park flier type plane you are much better off spending the extra $$$ for a picco stick or something similar.

First Plane?
 

Please educate me. How could a receiver and servos that are leagle in one plane be ileagle in another plane? :confused:

First Plane?
 

Just a quick update from my last post. Since that time a lot of progress
has been made. I am fully solo and having a wonderful time. This Aerobird
is really a great plane, and with one minor modification, as tough as can
be. I have crashed it so many times and it just keeps flying.

When you teach yourself, I guess you are solo right away. However I am now
confident enough now that I take off, fly and land, with no problems or
hesitation. I am working on skills, smoothness and precision now.

A couple of the senior flyers asked how many years I had been flying. I
told them I started in March. They wanted to know how I had gotten to this
level so fast. So, I guess I am doing pretty well.

Oh, and in my remarks in the previous post, I comment on wind. This plane
does great in winds up to 12 MPH and I have flown in winds clocked at the
field up to 15 MPH with no problems. When other planes are grounded, I just
toss mine up and fly.

My issue above was totally my own lack of skills. Once I got a calm day,
all of my problems went away and I was flying with confidence. Now I fly in
wind with no issues at all.

If you are a first time flyer, this is a great plane to start your new
hobby. My club is made up of glider flyers and electric flyers. Several
members have Firebirds, Firebird XLs and Firghterbirds. All have advanced
to gliders and 3-4 channel electrics. However they all love the Aerobird
for its easy handling and the fact that it glides pretty nicely. Plus,
since it has a normal elevator function, rather than using the throttle for
altitude control, the skills learned on the Aerobird are easily transferred
to other planes.

The most likely thing you will damage on an Aerobird is the wing. It is
easily fixed with tape and glue, but if you fold it or break it,
replacements are only $15 and are readily available. After 2 months and 20+
flights, with some pretty spectacular crashes, I finally have to trash my
two original wings and buy a new one.

I do have a recommendation on reinforcing the motor area. While this is not
a defect in the plane, this one area is subject to damage if you take a
severe enough nose crash either into the ground or into a tree or building.
Crashes like this would "rekit" most planes, but not the Aerobird, but it
can cause the motor to shift. I have a simple solution, if anyone is
interested, that prevents the problem before it happens.

Anyway, I love this plane and would recommend it to anyone! At least one
member, with two years of experience, plans to buy one for himself. :D

First Plane?
 

"Please educate me. How could a receiver and servos that are leagle in one plane be ileagle in another plane? "

Most (all?) of the park fliers we get here, fire bird, fighter bird etc, etc are on 27mhz radio gear, this is used and aproved for surface RC, cars, boats etc etc and is not aproved for aircraft RC, it gets around the laws by being sold as a "toy" with a range of only 500 meters.

if you used the radio gear in a "normal" rc plane you would be breaking the law and your duty of care as it is accepted that the rc gear is for "toys"

it would be OK to transplant the RC gear in to a plane that could also be considered a "toy"


i know its wishy washy but thats the rules, basicaly its the definition of "toy"

First Plane?
 

Woodsy I am afraid that is incorrect and the six RC channels on the 27Mhz band are in fact shared by surface and air use, is totally legal and spelled out in Your AMA membership manual. IT is however not recommended by the AMA but legal. There is a growing ground swell of vintage RC enthusiast that use two frequencys on this band with vintage equippment.

I still Maintain however The fighterbird, Firebird etc. are virtually useless if your goal is to fly RC airplanes. The Aerobird is better with adaquate controls but is still an expensive sidetrack.

John

First Plane?
 

JohnBuckner,

I agree 100% with you. For what the Aerobird costs there are much better alternatives. But to each his own

First Plane?
 

Did you find a club? Congradulations on learning on your own, this is not an easy task and sometimes drives new modelers away from the hobby.

First Plane?
 

I think you are mistaken my friend. Let me site my source, the FCC

http://wireless.fcc.gov/services/per.../bandplan.html

This is copied from that link


FCC rules list 80 channels in the 72.0 - 73.0 MHz and 75.4 -76 MHz VHF ranges for R/C transmissions. You must stop such transmissions, however, if they interfere with authorized radio operations in those VHF ranges or with broadcast TV reception on channels 4 or 5

FCC rules also list HF channels at 26.995, 27.045, 27.095, 27.145, 27.195, and 27.244 MHz that may be used to operate any kind of device including model aircraft and surface craft devices. R/C channels are not afforded any protection from interference due to the operation of fixed and mobile stations in other services assigned to the same or adjacent frequencies.

So, it would not be illegal to move radio equipment from an Aerobird and put it into another plane. Someone apparently gave you some bad info. I hope this clears it up.

First Plane?
 

If you guys have a look we are in completely diferant countries, your FCC/FAA/AMA regs have NO bearing on what is legal here or some where else.

if you look at my original post on this all i did whas point out that it was "sometimes illegal" i did NOT say it WAS ilegal as i have no idea what can and can not be done in the USA or elsewhere.

the original posters (DJMic) tag says he is from Lethbridge, is that USA, UK, Australia or Timbuctu??? this forum is used all over the world and we can NOT automaticaly asume that what is OK in one place also aplies somewhere else.

So if you guys can stop quoting the USA regulations we might save some space on the server, if the tag said Lethbridge USA i probably would not have mentioned the Aussie regs