So I crashed my Christmas Present...

[91100 100 set]

Remote control airplanes ARE NOT like for-real airplanes.

My girlfriend got me an "entry-level" remote control airplane for Christmas this year. Cool gift, total surprise, and it's always been something I've been curious about, so I thought it was pretty thoughtful of her. Spent a few days trapped inside because it was either too windy, or rainy, or whatever, just fiddling with it. Moving the controls around, messing with the motor, discharging the batteries and recharging them. Finally got out today to fly it. Calm day, not raining. We find a decent sized park with trees around the edges. Not decent sized enough apparently. I thought I had a pretty good feel for it, nice and easy, lets not do anything dumb just yet. My girlfriend says "You better turn it, you're getting close to that tree". "No, honey, that tree is farther away than it ...". Crack. The left wing snags into a branch and throws the plane around, about 50 feet up. The tree spits it out, in level flight but upside down, motor still running. Nose is dropping, and I can't believe I had the presence of mind to actually push the nose back up for a decent, if upside down, landing. We look at each other, she sees her 200 bucks broken into a few pieces of styrofoam. I calmly walk over to it and find its fine, with a small dent in the wing (nothing a little packing tape can't fix) and some grass piled up around the top, not even the prop was damaged.

I should have taken that as a clue that the park was too small and we should have packed it up and gone looking for a bigger field. Nope, I was apparently too jazzed up to be that smart. So I fly it around some more. It went okay, until I fell victim to the "graveyard spiral". Another crash, fortunately, it was the same wing, and some more packing tape, but I can now see why the instruction manual includes a page with part numbers to replace things like the wings and tail.

Again, remote control airplanes ARE NOT like real airplanes. They are alot of fun though.

 

[NW_Pilot]

[FONT=&quot]Designed to drain your pocket book! Like the real ones.[/FONT]

 

[PUNISHER]

Again, remote control airplanes ARE NOT like real airplanes. They are alot of fun though.[/quote]

Yup,
Mine only lasted 45 sec before it was turned into balsa shambles. Hit so hard I found the engine inbeded in a tree about ten feet away from the main reckage. 30 hours of rebuilding and it was back together. Took about about 2 minutes to destroy it the second time.
I would definetly recomend lessons to anyone who has money invested into their RC. It's a good drinking sport, just don't ever say "I FLY REAL AIRPLANES" around a hardcore RC guy, unless your trying to piss them off.

 

[FlierDude]

I would definetly recomend lessons to anyone who has money invested into their RC.

Great tip, and the mfgrs. should stress it in their products. Call the hobby shop and find out where the local RC club flies. Go there and let an instructor help you out.

I went through 3 planes before I wised up!

Now have a room full, including 3 helis....

 

[Gorilla]

I enjoy RC, and you guys are right, it is TOTALLY DIFFERENT from real airplanes. I'd say a non-pilot is in a better position to be successful than a pilot. No preconcieved notions.

There are simulators for the PC available that are very realistic. If you get serious about wanting to learn, get one of the better simulators.

 

[wheelsup]

LOL. I had a gas powered one, and went to a club and took a few lessons, which went well.

One day I was out playing around with it, and had it doing an inverted pass low over the field. Well, unfortunately the elevator travel on it wasn't enough to pull it out of straight and level and it just mozy'ed on nose first into a line of trees.

I tried to fix it, but it wasn't very structually sound after that. I tore the radios, engine, and servos out and threw the plane away finally. It was fun while it lasted though .

I've since got a R/C car, which runs on nitro (gas) as well. It's pretty fun, but you need a track you can run them at with other people to have any fun.

~wheelsup

 

[cforst513]

gone thru 2 wings and tails on mine so far...

 

[cheyflyer]

Invest about 250 bucks in a computer sim program. You will save hundreds in the future. Check out Great Planes G2 or G3 flight sim. Very realistic. I think Tower Hobbies would be the best pace to look or your local hobby shop.

 

[Wankel7]

My dad got me one of those powered gliders. Has a six foot wing span and it was sooo much fun to fly.

I prob got 20 or so flights out of it before I vaporized it. I was flying it in S. texas on a summer day and I started catching thermals. Well, it disappeared because it was so high. I catch it in a dive...and well pull up to much. Snap goes the wing. It spriraled in from about 500 feet. But it crashed thru a tree and into mud. All the expensive stuff survived

I never did find the wing that broke first

Wankel

Edit - The wing prob snapped because of the 10 crashes before that

 

[Gorilla]

For guys interested in learning RC, try one of the cheaper, ready to fly "foamy" electric park flyers. They are quiet, really easy to fly, and inexpensive. If they crash, salvage the RC gear and propulsion, and pitch the rest. Once you get really good with the park flyer, and your hands don't have to think about what they're doing (your control inputs are pretty much automatic) then consider a gas trainer.

Some of the smaller and slower park flyers can be flown in your front yard. It's a lot of fun doing touch and go's with a GWS Tiger moth on the street in front of your house. You can slow-fly it right into your hand and catch it on the fly!