I am interested in getting an electric trainer airplane (very easy to fly, not tons of $$) that has a buddy box. I am finding lots of ready to fly kits that are trainers, but no buddy box. I have a son who is very interested in this stuff, but don't want him to crash our investment.

Can anyone recommend such a setup? Is anything like this available, or do I have to go the route of assembling it piece by piece?

Thank you in advance,
John

Hi John,

Buddy box ports tend to be features on more expensive radios, where as most of the RTF electric trainer parkflyers are built to a budget, and hence feature very simple transmitters.

If things run true to form your son will probably pick it up more quickly than you, and you'll be the one who most imperils the aircraft

Training with parkflyers can be done through a combination of:

* Using the simulator (make sure your TX can speak to the PC to use FMS and
* The more experienced pilot flying the aircraft to a good altitude, say 60 feet, passing the controller to the less experienced pilot, and then taking it back when they get into trouble.

Good luck.

Cheers,
Oz.

The Hobbico Electristar has the features you want. My son and I have them and learned to fly on them. It is a good plane to learn on and is a good sport flyer.
[link=http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXNVC0**&P=ML]Hobbico ElectriStar Select EP Brushless RTF 63"[/link]

But you will need to buy a separate buddy box and chord. One does not come with this or any other trainer kit.

john,

most clubs have the buddy boxes for the popular radios IE.. futaba, hitec, j.r. so in most cases you do not have to buy it on your own. find a local club and go and introduce yourself and just chat with the people there. not only will you make some new fiends BUT you will learn alot from these folks.


once you talk with them and find out when trainer nights are (my clubs trainer days are tue,wed and thur. most clubs will even get you up in the air before you become a member (but most want you to be an AMA member)



just remember to ask questions and get alot of stick time the poeple at the field are just like us here more than willing to help and lend a hand when we can.

have a great day hope you and your son get to fly soon [8D]




bassman

Thank you to everyone for your helpful responses!

Check out the T-Hawk trainer package - which includes a buddy box and everything you are looking for. The T-Hawk is a good 3-ch plane to learn on. It's a pusher prop which means you won't burn through props as much. The high wing makes it a stable flyer and it has a good glide as well. The delux package uses a 72MHz radio system. The electronics can be used in other planes. All this for under $300. I started flying last year - taught myself - on a similar plane and I have never looked back. I am moving up to a 4ch plane this year (just got my birthday money from my wife). I hope that you are your son have fun. I just started my son on the plane that I learned on - he seems to be getting the hang of it a little faster than I did (video game generation).

http://www.readytoflyfun.com/tpatrpa.html

This is PERFECT for what I am looking for! Thank you SO much! A couple questions - I have heard alot of negatives about batteries. I don't know if they expected too much out of them or what - I expect ~10 minutes fly time out of each of them. I have heard the lifetime of them is short - like 3-6 months. Sounds way to short to me - I would expect 12 months'ish. Also, what is the performance with wind? Being very light I do not expect it to fly with a breeze, but is it so sensitive than *any* wind/breeze/tiny gust knocks it out of the sky? Does it have to be perfectly calm at all times?

Thank you so much for your time,
John

I'm glad I could be of assistance. If you take good care of the batteries - don't let them overheat when charging, don't run them dry when you'r flying, invest in a better charger than what comes with the plane - you should be able to make them last a year or more. One of my original batteries is working just fine after almost 12 months. Flight time depends a lot on if your are flying full-out or cutting your throttle back. At 1/2 throttle I can fly past 15 minutes on one battery. If you want to really be there for a while - take it up way high, fligh it glider style - take it up a ways and cut the motor and glide until you need to take it up again. There's a spot near my house that has decent thermals and I have flown for almost an hour this way. It had my plane so hight at one point that I lost radio control for a few minutes. T-Hawks are big enough that they can handle some wind - maybe up to 15 mph or so. No wind is ideal, but a little wind can be fun. I had my plane up yesterday (not a T-hawk, but similar) and was able to stall it into the wind and hang it there for a while. It was a riot!

Have Fun,
Lance