Hello gang,

I have decided to enter the world of RC aircraft, but was wondering if I should start with fixed wing or rotor? I know that I should start cheap and master the art before moving on to the good stuff, but was wondering about the choice between planes and copters. Is it like Racquetball and Tennis, i.e. pick one only, because the one will tank your ability to play the other?

Also, once I choose where to begin, what equipment recommendations would you have?

Thanks for the advice. I have always wanted to do this, but really have no idea where to start.

I would go fixed wing. get a good electric fly foam, theya re very durable and easy to repair if they take to much dmage as well as being cheaper then most. I use tower hobbies in the states for all my needs. they also have micro rotary wings that are relatively cheap and they come ready to fly, as do some of the foamies.
I would find a good hobbie store and such to check everything out. Just my opinions .


Bullet

Mate the cheapest and probably quickest way to success would be to join a club, find out what the nebies on the flightline are flying including radio gear, most clubs seem to have a predominant trainer and radio system, make for quick and easy setup, and knowledge. Go fixed wing first, get some spatial awareness, and orientation skills, choppers take no prisoners, where as a decent fixed wing trainer setup shouldn't punish you so hard if you have a bit of a balls up!


Hope this helps
Craig

I'm in the same boat and attempting to justify my purchase of a beginner R/C plane by suggesting my 6-year-old daughter will fly it! Things have moved on amazingly from when I was a kid, electric motors, batteries and plastic/foam have revolutionised model flying.

I have my eyes on this: http://www.modelflight.com.au/support/phpkb/question.php?ID=161

The Hobbyzone champ. Cheap, got everything you need in the box, and small and easy to fly.

smith

I wouldn't exactly say fixed vs rotor is like raquetball vs tennis, but I will say this - rotor is nothing like fixed-wing, so don't think learning one will make learning the other any easier. A very general rule of thumb is rotor flight is more difficult, but this is a very, very general rule....there are plenty of rotor-heads who would say different. I'd suggest picking whichever one you find more interesting and then starting with that one.

If rotor is your choice, I'd strongly suggest starting with coaxial, as coaxials are substantially easier to fly than tail-rotor. As far as starting cheap, I'd advise against starting too cheap as there are alot of what I refer to as gimmicks out there and a good number of those gimmicks are more frustrating than fun. If $100-$200 is your price range, E-flite offers some very good starter helis that pretty much fly right out of the box and are small enough to fly indoors.

If fixed-wing is your choice, I don't know if there are any gimmicks, but there might be. You should be able to find something in the same price range.

I'm assuming you'll be starting with electric as opposed to fuel so the only other advice I'd offer is - choose rotor If you start slow and get a good starter heli, RC helis are a blast!!

My suggestion is to first download one of the free http://rcdeskpilot.com/ or http://www.rc-flight-simulator.com/ or http://www.heliguy.com/nexus/fms.html rc-simulators to get used to flying before white knuckling your new rc aircraft into the ground. Get that old, Thumb-eye, little plane is flying off and becoming a dot, cordination working.

I started about two years ago from scratch. Never did RC anything, just flight sims on the PC. I assume both of you know the basics of flight in a flight sim, my suggestion would be to get a Ready to Fly (RTF) park flyer. I would stay away from those mini planes or micro planes because those become difficult to fly with any sort of breeze. I started out on a three channel (throttle, rudder, elevator) J-3 cub.

http://www.parkzone.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=PKZ4500

Super easy to fly, tons of power when needed (you can do loops and even a barrel roll when you get advancd). Super durable too, most parts for repair are 2-3 bucks unless you need the whole wing which I think costs 5 or 10. Very rare to need an expensive repair though and I crashed the crap out of mine....just make sure to have some extra props on hand, you can get them for 2 bucks (took me a three or four before I figured out how to land without busting one).

After that I moved on to a T-28d Trojan 4 channel (Throttle, rudder, elevator and ailerons). Took me about 3-6 months of flying to get comfortable to move up.

Wonderful tips, thanks so much gents. I'm very excited to get going on this. I think I'm going to start with the J-3 Cub right out of the box and pick up a mini copter for some indoor rotor fun in the house.

I'm also going to look into joining a local club.

Thanks again for being so helpful.

JCathcart, seems that you have a good handle on what you want to do, well done. I too have a couple of E-flight planes (T28 and another I forget the name of right now) and find them extremely easy and fun to fly. They are very relaxing to fly compared to my 1/4 and 1/3 scale planes

I also second the notion to find a club to fly with. Most have a designated training officer who will walk you through everything you need to know on the ground and then put you on a buddy box so he can control the plane if you get out of control in the air. The best way I know of to help a new pilot earn his wings.

I would say:

(1) JOIN A CLUB. This is how you learn, anyone who says otherwise is wrong. Flying planes can be dangerous, start under the experienced eye of a skilled club pilot.

(2) Do not buy a three channel foamie. Buy a decent sized 4 channel trainer. They don't get pushed around by the wind, they are easier to control. I'd recommend the Sig Kadet LT-40.

I went down this road about a year ago. I started with helicopters but quickly found it was NOT the way to go! Real helicopters are very hard to fly, even after considerable simulator practice. Even the pros have crashes, and helicopter crashes are very expensive to repair. In contrast, RC planes now are made of foam and (small ones) almost indestructible or (40 inch size) very easy to repair - you just glue them back together.
There is one compromise: dual-rotor "coaxial" helicopters. They can be purchased for around $100, and they are much easier to fly. Still expensive when they crash, but less likely to crash.
The catch is that 1) not much you can do with them - they are very stable which means can't do much acrobatics
2) learning to fly them only helps a little bit when you graduate to real helicopters.

All told, I spent several hundred $ on helicopters before I gave up and switched. It would have been better to go straight to planes.

As far as starting, go to RCgroups.com and check into the newbie forums. The best starting planes are endlessly discussed there. I started with something called an EasyStar, which was great - very easy to fly, indestructible (seriously).

Buy a good 6 channel radio, receiver, 3 servos, electronic speed control, brushless motor, a couple of lipo batteries and a charger. Buy a bundle of blue fanfold at your local Lowes, Home Depot etc. for $35-$40, enough to build literally dozens of aircraft. You now have most of all you need to build and fly dozens of different scratch build aircraft.

Google "free foam aircraft plans" and build yourself a high wing “Cub-like” aircraft that would make a good, stable trainer. If you trash it it is easy and cheap to repair or replace. When you get used to flying it and want something more challenging look for a more challenging set of plans, free, online. Eventually you’ll move up to 3d aircraft, pusher prop jets etc. All on that one bundle of fanfold.

Dog's idea isn't bad if you like that sort of thing.

If it must be a foamie I'll give a plug for the KMP Wilga. Comes with floats as well as wheels, so it is interesting even after you master the flying part. It comes with a 4 channel 2.4 ghz radio, reciever, servos, motor, lipo battery, everything is installed at the factory, so very easy build.

There are others who sell the same plane from the same factory, but KMP had them make some improvements to the design which improve it (for example, cross struts for the floats so you don't look like bambi on ice when you put it down on water.

http://www.kmp.ca/product_info.php?products_id=274

FULL DISCLOSURE: I used to work for KMP. Andrew Kondor is a friend of mine.

DEFINITELY LEARN ON A BUDDY BOX FIRST!

Nope. The wing span is far too small for one. Bigger is better in trainers. They are much more stable and far easier to see in the air.

I would join a RC group first and then you can get the best of advice possible and a lot of friends to help you succeed.

Brealistic is absolutely right on the money. X2.

Thanks for the feedback. I haven't bought anything yet. What would you recommend instead, with similar chacteristics (ie electric, foam, beginner, ready to fly)?

smith

I don't know about Brealistic, but I'd recommend a 60 sized trainer. It can be foam, it can be electric, but it should be 60 sized at least, and have 4 channels. You should join a club and you should learn to fly with them. Otherwise you'll have a pile of broken styrofoam after 5 minutes.

Like I said bud, the best thing to do is check out/join a club and ask around for what they favour as a trainer, same with radio brand, trying to get help setting up a futaba at a club where everyone flys jr would be frustrating, also find out what mode the instructors fly, no point turning up with a mode2 radio if everyone flys mode1. With all these things most clubs seem to gravitate towards some sort of a standard, it makes things easier for everyone, the new starter, and instructors alike. If you decide to go with electic powered flight chances are you will be using LiPo batteries, buy yourself a good balance charger, and study up on the batteries, there is plenty of good info out there on the battery manufacturers web sites, have a healthy respect for them, and please don't charge them inside the house or leave them unattended while charging!

Craig

I think most clubs are moving towards the 2 ghz systems now.

I've flown both fixed and rotor for years. RC helo's can be quite challenging to fly. I'd definitely start on a fixed wing trainer type craft. The hardest thing for most people in rc is mastering what to do when the model is coming at you, once you master that on an easier fixed wing it's not so bad moving on to helo's.

I definitely wouldn't try learning to fly helo's alone. Either get someone to help you or buy a computer sim like the Phoenix RC sim. It's pretty accurate and can help you a ton once you have a few hours. I wouldn't go fly a real model though until you can take off and land darn near 100% in the sim. And only spend your time in the sim flying the trainer heli's with the trainer gear on so you have a feel for what your model will be like. Training with airwolf or the turbine apache is a waste of time as your model is going to be nothing like it.

The foam models are ok, but i wouldn't start on one. Most of the cheap ones are too light and wind will make you eat that thing. I actually bought a foam ducted fan jet, has about a 3 ft wingspan. even that is twitchy in the wind.

Phoenix is a good sim, but its nothing like flying the real thing. Just like Deer Hunter is nothing like actually hunting.

Its true. Even at 60 MPH they bob up and down in the wind.

Dont understand the need to join a club. I learned just fine without one, in fact my first plane, J-3 Parkzone three channel taught me alot and only need minor parts like the plastic cowl and such. If you use a sim, watch videos, and just go slow, you will get the hang of it easily. Its not rocket science. Clubs and Buddy box are not necessary.

I sold 1000$ ARFs for two years. Every few days I'd get a call from someone who'd want to buy one, but had obviously never flown anything before. I wouldn't sell it to them. They'd surely crash it (got those 'your plane wouldn't fly' calls on Mondays too), and possibly kill someone or cause thousands of dollars in damage (got those calls too).

If you want to do it right, join a club, learn on a buddy box and you'll have more fun, you won't waste your money on something you turned into a pile of toothpicks 2 mins into your first flight.

Sorry to resurrect a dead thread, but I'm with ripper998 on this one.....mostly. It is entirely possible to learn RC without clubs and buddy boxes. It can be done and it is not "not right" to learn RC solo! I don't agree that watching videos and practicing on simulations is going to teach you how to fly however. These things might help a little but they don't come close to actual flight so one shouldn't rely on them too much. The advice to take it slow is spot on!!

That said, if a beginner is planning on spending $1000$ for an ARF as a 1st model, they should probably get their head examined!! At the very least they should indeed join a club and hookup to a buddy box. Better still - buy a cheaper ARF, learn how to fly, and then buy the $1000$ kit!!

I'll quote another poster in another thread...

100% disagree. I have been flying RC for several years now and cannot say enough about how accessible foam models make this hobby for new comers. Foam models can be flown in very small areas (large parks, soccer fields, etc...), can belly land on grass eliminating the need for a runway, and are incredibly tough and unbelievably repairable. Many can be flown into the ground inverted, at full throttle, cartwheeled, etc... and made flyable again in 5 minutes with epoxy. Makes it much easier to tolerate mistakes and the steep learning curve that comes with RC flying. I would never have been able to afford this hobby if I destroyed a $100 model every time I crashed when I was learning. Foam has allowed me to be part of this hobby.

That being said, they are sensitive to wind, but no more sensitive to wind than a blasa model of the same size.

Mate ...

There is some very good advice here and take what you need is suitable for what you wish to do.

RC flying is more immersive than sim as it is real time, fact, conditions and consequences.

The reality, never be discouraged if you crash and burn.
The one thing you have in favour ... You can always walk away from this and rebuild.

If I could give any advice, it would be to firstly understand aeronautics ... Eg: Lift, drag, thrust, weight ... the main factor of which controls everything outside of this is ... gravity.

Go to a club and let someone teach you through a buddy system. Costs nothing!
Listen, learn and accept advise.

Fixed wing aircraft have basic dynamics ... Rotor, a whole new concept.

All the best with your endeavours.

Cheers