So I crashed my Christmas Present...

[FracCapt]

RC Helo's are TOUGH though.....that's by far the easiest one to fly, and it's still tough.

Hey, I fly REAL helo's....how tough could it be?

Should've seen the time a guy came to me and said he wanted to fly a helicopter...but wouldn't need any training because he flies RC helo's. :laugh:

 

[doug_or]

. It's a lot of fun doing touch and go's with a GWS Tiger moth on the street in front of your house.

Yes, yes, and yes. Even I got that one going good! you can fly it in a tiny area, but it'll also do several loops in a row (just know when enough is enough.... thats alsways what made me need to break out te epoxy.)

 

[Tripower455]

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!

GREAT advice..... I've been flying RC off and on for 26 years or so, and last year, wanted to teach my 8 year old how to fly them. I was all set to go out and buy/build a balsa .40 sized trainer, when one of the FOs I flew with, who has been doing it longer than I have, told me about the GWS electric stuff.

Now, I hadn't been active in RC for about 10 years, and when I got out of it, electrics were still a very esoteric side of the hobby. Radios and batterires were too heavy for decent performance so you had a choice of a sporty plane that would fly for 3 minutes, or a powered glider that might eek out 10.

That has ALL changed........

I bought my son a GWS Slow Stick, and had him flying it by himself in 4 flights. They are cheap, virtually indestructible, and fly great. I truly believe that anyone with half a clue can successfully teach themselves to fly RC by themselves with this plane. I never thought I'd enjoy flying a 3 channel trainer, but it is actually kind of fun, especially if there is a wind blowing (bad for training, but fun to fly it backwards, and descend with 0 groundspeed). Now, he is on an E-Starter with a cheap outrunner on it, and will be flying a GWS Corsair pretty soon. You absolutely can't beat the GWS stuff for it's price/performance margin. I am a dyed in the wool balsa builder too, and can admit that the flying beer coolers are pretty darn good for $30 sans motor!

I am as much a builder as I am a flyer. I truly enjoy building balsa kits. I've gone totally electric now, and have pretty much settled into the speed 400 warbird niche. I am still amazed at how much performance I can get out of a 32" span plane. My favorite is a Ryan Bearcat, with a 6 turn Mega brushless in it. It will accerate straight up, and will give me about 40 minutes of flying time on a TP 2100 LiPo. Definitely not for a beginner though!

 

[Gorilla]

...when I got out of it, electrics were still a very esoteric side of the hobby. Radios and batterires were too heavy for decent performance so you had a choice of a sporty plane that would fly for 3 minutes, or a powered glider that might eek out 10.

That has ALL changed........

I bought my son a GWS Slow Stick, and had him flying it by himself in 4 flights. They are cheap, virtually indestructible, and fly great. I truly believe that anyone with half a clue can successfully teach themselves to fly RC by themselves with this plane. I never thought I'd enjoy flying a 3 channel trainer, but it is actually kind of fun, especially if there is a wind blowing (bad for training, but fun to fly it backwards, and descend with 0 groundspeed). Now, he is on an E-Starter with a cheap outrunner on it, and will be flying a GWS Corsair pretty soon. You absolutely can't beat the GWS stuff for it's price/performance margin. I am a dyed in the wool balsa builder too, and can admit that the flying beer coolers are pretty darn good for $30 sans motor!

I am as much a builder as I am a flyer. I truly enjoy building balsa kits. I've gone totally electric now, and have pretty much settled into the speed 400 warbird niche. I am still amazed at how much performance I can get out of a 32" span plane. My favorite is a Ryan Bearcat, with a 6 turn Mega brushless in it. It will accerate straight up, and will give me about 40 minutes of flying time on a TP 2100 LiPo. Definitely not for a beginner though!

I was in the same boat as you! I grew up with balsa dust in my hair, and still have fond memories of building, but I simply don't have the time to build like I used to. The new electrics are simply awesome. I still haven't ventured into LiPo's yet, but definitely use and enjoy brushless motors, which have more power and draw less current than a cheap brushed motor.

My favorite cheap foamie right now is a Formosa with a little brushless motor and NiMH batteries. The formosa looks like a midget '70's pattern ship, and flies like one too.

There has been a great series on the model airplanes used in the recent Howard Hughes movie in the AMA magazine. Here's how much electrics have progressed... the Spruce Goose in the movie was a monstrous model weighing over 300 pounds, yet they chose electric power and had zero problems getting the giant model airborne and off the water. That's impressive!

 

[Tripower455]

I was in the same boat as you! I grew up with balsa dust in my hair, and still have fond memories of building, but I simply don't have the time to build like I used to. The new electrics are simply awesome. I still haven't ventured into LiPo's yet, but definitely use and enjoy brushless motors, which have more power and draw less current than a cheap brushed motor.

My favorite cheap foamie right now is a Formosa with a little brushless motor and NiMH batteries. The formosa looks like a midget '70's pattern ship, and flies like one too.

There has been a great series on the model airplanes used in the recent Howard Hughes movie in the AMA magazine. Here's how much electrics have progressed... the Spruce Goose in the movie was a monstrous model weighing over 300 pounds, yet they chose electric power and had zero problems getting the giant model airborne and off the water. That's impressive!

The Formosa is a great flying plane. One of the guys at the field has one with a Himax 2025-5300, and it is a rocket. It is very reminiscent of an old school pattern plane, but not quite as precise feeling, probably do to the size. Hey, what do you want for $30?

I still like to breathe balsa dust! Building is truly half the fun to me, but the foamies certainly have their place. I built a balsa aileron trainer for my son as a second airplane, then, after I flew it a while, decided that it cost too much and took too long to build to risk him wrecking it, so I got him an Estarter "slope glider" kit for $25, put a cheap outrunner on it, and he is in hog heaven. It flies great, and there is so little time/money invested that if he wrecks it beyond repair (really hard to do with a foamie I've found! oderless CA and packing tape work wonders on these things!), it's no great loss

With less and less flying fields available, these little park flyers really are a Godsend. My son and I have a great schoolyard 5 minutes up the road to fly the slower stuff in. No one complains about noise, and I can put the airplanes right on my leather upholstery in the car afterwards with no fear of castor oil stains!

 

[FlyingPieceOfSt]

Dog Fighting RC's

I have been to the Carlsbad,CA area and found these triangular, B-2 looking rc's with no engines using the wind off the Cali cliffs near the ocean to keep them moving.

I even had the chance to fly one by just be an observer for 10 minutes! It wasnt too hard to fly and it was my first rc a/c attempt. Just flew it along the ridge line about 75 feet each way and the turns were easier than you think. The kid even caught it with his hands so I did not have to attempt to land it in the parking lot area we were near.

These are inexpensive to make and they actually dog fight each other to where they try to crash into each other in mid-air. They usually can be repaired right there on the spot. The only thing on this delta winged looking rc is a battery and servos for the elevons. Real simple concept and only had one stick on this particular remote control. Left-right and up-down.

Has anyone else seen these or have a sight to check them out?

You are limited if you dont have a place like California's ocean cliffs to fly them all day.

 

[FlyingFisherman]

www.jkaerotech.com

Best little easy to build and unbreakable suckers out there.

1/12 scale warbirds. I have 2 F4Us, 2 P-51s, 1 A6M Zeke and 1 FW-190.

 

[fr8mutt]

I,ve got a blade CP RC copter and am having a tough time getting it to fly over a minute

 

[Flyin Tony]

I got a POS on the danm engine wouldnt start so i tossed it off my roof and it only went up once befor it went into the trash

 

[Gorilla]

I got a POS on the danm engine wouldnt start so i tossed it off my roof and it only went up once befor it went into the trash

That's why electrics are great for noobs. Many of us grew up with Cox .049's. If you can start a babe bee or a tee dee, you can start a .40 glow 2 or 4 stroke. But if you've never messed with these little engines before, it can be intimidating and tricky. I always hated the goo (castor oil) deposited all over the model, and even muffled, the noise can irritate neighbors. I've always thought if I get back into gas engine R/C, I'd go giant scale spark engine, using a gasoline/oil mix - no "goo" to deal with.

If anyone decides to go electric, skip NiCD and NiMH batteries and go right into LiPo batteries. Just watch out for fires when you recharge! Get a charger specifically designed for your LiPo pack(s). LiPo's have phenomenal energy densities and seem far more reliable than the others.

 

[CDogg]

I learned to fly with a Superstick 60" wingspan and a Saito .80 on it. I have an Aeroworks Edge 540 with a Saito T130 in it now. It's not light and doesn't perform like if it had an OS .91 2 stroke in it, but it sounds/looks awesome, sounds like a real airplane, and at sea level, still has amazing performance.... used to have a 1/5 scale Spitfire with a gasser in it, was a blast, still some structural failure on the elevator occured while on a high speed pass and it lawn darted.

Never got into electrics, but it seems it would be a lot easier on the pocket book!

 

[Wankel7]

Found a picture of my cracked up plane...poor thing

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/rotaryr/Meh.jpg

Yey, it flies again! I finally finished the ARF model this week. Only got one flight on it. It always forkn' windy here so I have to wait for calm winds. But I flew it for at least 30 minutes with three landings...guess that covers me for recency. and I didn't ball it up!

Wankel

 

[Gorilla]

Yey, it flies again! I finally finished the ARF model this week. Only got one flight on it. It always forkn' windy here so I have to wait for calm winds. But I flew it for at least 30 minutes with three landings...guess that covers me for recency. and I didn't ball it up!

Wankel

Nice! You'll REALLY begin to have fun when you have the skills so when you begin a flying session, you're not worried about crashing, and you have every expectation of taking home an intact model. Then you'll buy more, and have a whole fleet to choose from.

 

[Wankel7]

Nice! You'll REALLY begin to have fun when you have the skills so when you begin a flying session, you're not worried about crashing, and you have every expectation of taking home an intact model. Then you'll buy more, and have a whole fleet to choose from.

Dude, you are so right about that. The whole time I was soooo nervous about crashing it was hard to enjoy the moment. Can't wait to get back out there!

I can't wait for the reckless spending when I get hooked!

Wankel