dsmith

Fancy having a play with a Radio Controlled plane. But before I shell out 250-350 on a "proper" model with glow engine,proper 4 Ch controls etc etc I'd like to try a cheapo small electric one first - partly to see if the fad lasts, partly to get some worthwhile pratice on something that hasnt cost 300+.

The smaller cheap electrics are 2Ch with some 3Ch ( i've even found one with 1ch ??? ) . How much like flying a grown-up 4Ch aircraft is one of these small ones. I'm guessing the experience for hand/eye when the plane is going away and coming towards will be useful but the controls themselves will be quite different ?

The 3Ch seem to be Elevator+Rudder+Throttle I would have expected it to be Elevator+Aileron+Throttle as its normally the rudder you can bring in last ...?

Anyone started/tried a small electric before moving up....?

Deano

Leslie

The cheapo ones don't have ailerons and rely on the yaw produced by the rudder to make the aircraft roll since the outside wing is going faster due to the yaw and thus produces more lift. It will then turn because of the induced roll.

Best to get a three channel one to learn, I started with a 4 channel low wing design and it was very hard even though I was a qualified pilot. Had a few crashes!

It is easier to progress once you have got the hang of the three channels and you are used to the different aspect as it flies towards or away from you. Best that it does not go very fast of course.

Good luck

Les

Jamo

iTrader: (23)

goto bigpockets, there £35 delivered at the minute, dont last long, but you will get an idea mate

yoza

I learnt on a "buddy lead".

This allows an expert to take control of your plane, whenever you get into difficulty, he simply switches your controls to his controls.

The controlers are linked together by a lead, and the expert has to hold a switch down to give you control.

This I found the best and least expensive way to fly.

When I became competant, I crashed my WOT4 CLASSIC, ACRO-WOT, and CAP.......

Expensive and time consuming hobby, for me at least.

My brain had problems with the flying towards you, and flying away from you bit.

When the plane is flying away from you right stick, will turn the plane right, and the same for left. Now when the plane is fling towards you, its all **** about face, I was told that when the plane is flying towards you point the stick at the wing you want to lift. This worked for a bit, then I had problems when flying inverted, I would pull the stick back to climb, and so it went in.

Dead stick.............thats a laugh.

Ellivator flutter at full chat, resulted in the ellivator horn shearing off, flying with no ellivator is no fun.....

When we would turn up to fly every body would pack up and go home, I dont know why.

Later Yoza

Alas

Sorry folks but a guy beside us use to turn up every Sunday and start with one of these in the field next to our house. If I had a gun I'd have shot it and then the guy.
Seemed to go on for hours.
Stopped it by having the 9st psycho dog off the lead one day & telling it the guy had biscuits. Poor b4st4rd got ragged to bits by the dog running round him etc
Never saw him for about 3 months.
Alas

yoza

Alas that was brave of you.

I joined a club, but there were too many rules, so we flew on a mates farm, which was far more dangerous, and fun.

Flying in close proximity to other planes was a buzz.

Playing chicken was cool, and shooting old models down with a 12 bore was good too, they take a good few pellets before they go in though.

Alas

Yoza
I can understand the fun as you say of flying in close proximity to other planes, playing chicken etc - that would be a buzz but this guy would stand in the field alone flying this f%$£ing plane round & round for 3 - 4 hours. No stunts or flying close to ground etc. He did my head in. Dog liked him though until he realised he did'nt have any biscuit.
Alas

RayC

Join a club, its much easier, the club near me has people who are very competent and they take the controller and pull you out of the poo

I did get bored of mine quickly, mainly due to never having enough time, i've only flown it twice!

I have recently bough one of the cheapey ones of of iwantoneofthose.com jsut the see if its more fun as the risk of making matchsticks out of £300 is taking the fun out of the "real" one

andrewdelvard

Always wanted to get into this, especially radio controlled gliders. However like a lot of things I've just never got round to it... Anyway take a look at this, I'm sure there are other versions that maybe just as good and cheaper but it's a very good idea for novice and pro alike.

http://www.hobby-lobby.com/flightsim.htm

Buzzer

I joined a club. I first went along and sought advice from the lads on what to get. I started with a kit form high wing trainer with a enya 40fp engine. It was a four channel (throttle, elevator, ailerons and rudder) trainer and i bought a futaba 6 channel handset.

I built my trainer and took it along to the club for inspection. Everything was ok so the guy took it up to trim it out and said "off you go" i took control and off i went, everytime it looked as if i banked too stteeply, he would take control and get me right. What you learn quickly is that if you let go of the controls the plane will level out. You keep practising in the air, then practise take off (pi55 easy) and then landing (as Yoza say's a really tough time at first especially if the thing is coming back at you).

You'll have loads of fun the trainer especially if you go to the max. 40 engines as trainers are quite heavy but dead easy to repair. I managed to repair my first trainer 3 times before it gave up the ghost and was totalled when the servo battery pack failed The engine was though. I went to a local modal shop and bought an ARTF (almost ready to fly) Olympian 40 trainer and i still have it today really good fun.

I now have a WOT4 which is a high wing acrobatic trainer which is the next step. After that go for a low wing trainer (i'm just starting to think about doing this) then after that go for a low wing acrobatic trainer. Once you've done these you are easily ready for scale replicas such as Spitfires, P51's etc etc

I got the 6 channel handset because in the future i can have retractable undercarriage and landing flaps or lights etc if i want to without the need to upgrade the handset.

You can get an ARTF trainer for £100.00 or £60.00 if you want to do it yourself. I would go for a decent 6 channel handset with either 3 or 4 servos depending on which plane you go for.

My other advice is get a starter. Prop rash hurts

Within say 6 hrs flying time you will have mastered the basics and be able to fly unsupervised. Remember that when you join a club you will be insured 3rd party for accident and damage and DEATH

jevvyg

Mate, the only way to go is...

http://www.irvineltd.com/products/ai...rvineXITe.html

me and 4 other mates bought one each and they are virtually indestructable - we have all crashed heavily many many times and yu just pick it up and chuck it again.

We fly in fields just tryin to hit eachother out the air or you can take them to a decent hill when its windy and fly it all day as a slope soarer glider - combat on the hill is ace too.

The are mainly made out of EPP foam which is the daddy - I'm quite happy to take a mate to a field that has never done any RC before and give him a go - dont care if he crashes it.

I have also got into RC helis - I always thought that these would be too much hassle but bought a Fixed Pitch Hummingbird, its small enough to hover in the house and with a few mods you can be blastin around the sky at a right speed - I love it

http://www.skylinemodels.co.uk/cgi/s...ml%23a755#a755

where are you, im happy to meet up if yr close and show you what theyre like - Im near Reading

good luck

dsmith

Thanks for the comments all.

A mate bought a proper trainer with 6CH & glow engine a year or so back - hes finally getting around to playing with it. Trouble is finding the time to along to a club.

I'm in the sticks (suffolk) and just outside the front door I have a very large field. most is long grass (seems excellent crash matting ) but with some well cut areas where you can taxi about land/ take -off. There's a couple of people who fly every now and again there.

The thought of wandering over the road for a quick flight on a summers evening is appealing - but I know ditching £300 worth of plane is probably going to kill the desire dead.

Hmmmm I can feel my flexible friend twitching.

Deano

dsmith

Suspect this might be biting of more than I can chew for a starter

scoobyster

I've been missing out on model flying since being at uni, but still have a bash now and again. I enjoy gliding the most but it depends how easy it is for you to get to a hill with some wind, in North Wales that's not too much of a problem .

I'd recommend you look at Phoenix Model Products. I've got a Synergy Aero and although it's not the best looking thing and it needs a fairly strong wind to work nicely, being made of EPP (foam stuff) makes in very crash proof - 8/10 times you just go fetch it from wherever you've binned it and throw it up again ! If an when I get another plane it will probably be a Kerfuffle from them I think

If you want powered for the field in front of your house, the Multiplex Twinstar gets very good reviews and is made of similar foam so is very robust. Also it's electric which is much less hassle than glow powered.
I had a nice 72" span electric glider for a while which I really enjoyed flying. It had a balsa wing and plastic fusalage so any small damage was fairly easy to repair. Unfortunately it met its end when I got 'black wire blues' (corrosion of battery pack's negative wire, unseen under the insulation) on my radio receiver pack; I'd had had the odd bit of intermittant radio control that flight and lost it completely while mid turn under power and very high. The servos just locked in place so the turn turned into a spiral dive and the nose ended up stuck into the ground quite an impressive distance!

I'm another one with a trusty WOT4 Mk2 Classic with an OS 40 up front. That's a fantastic plane, can throw it around the sky all day long. I've even flown it into a tree and after some (major!) repairs it flew again just as well. The only trouble with it is the glow fuel power really is such a pain; ends up getting everywhere and making a right mess and stink, plus the wasp in a can noise isn't a nice one.

Let us know how you get on .

jevvyg

seriously, get a foamie wing and a 6 channel radio - you wont regret it and all yr mates will buy one once they have had a go.

Yu launch it by hand so no need for take off landing area - to land it yu just slap it on the floor - excellent

Me and my bro have had various planes and stuff over the years and they have all broken and we have lost interest - these EPP foam jobbies just keep on going and yu can be well ruff with them - a dog ran over to us when we were in a field the other day and trampled all over mine - I didnt give a toss, no damage at all.

I can uderstand you wantin somic that looks like a real plane but the benefit of it lookin real is so slight compared to it bein robust.

Ive just been out with mine since I last posted, tuck it under my arm and wander round to the local field and fire it up - top summer fun

dsmith

I live in suffolk - we dont do "hills" round here

Deano

Buzzer

Deano

Look in LOOT there are always kits in there. I know someone who picked up a good used 4 channel handset, high wing trainer and engine for £200.00