Attention all RC Pilots...I've joined the sport.

[cracker39]

Around late May I bought a slightly used Alpha 40 trainer with all the equipment, found an instructor who had the patience to stick with me for the long journey from beginning to soloing Long before I had soloed, I had already bought another size 40 ARF and designed and built a seaplane. I have been flying on my own for about a month now. I have web pages for my RC experiences (good and bad) including the seaplane design and construction.

http://web.tampabay.rr.com/wdsummers/airplanes.html

I'm having a great time with this new hobby.

[Arne]

I've been flying for about 5 years now.. still fly my 60 size trainer now and then.. it is a great hobby for getting out of the house on nice days, and some socializing along the way....

I think this is the upgraded version. The salesman said with my old eyes, I'd better get a bigger plane../g/ Interestingly, I converted mine to a taildragger, also.. saves a lot of bent front wheels on those harder landings.

http://www.hobbico.com/airplanes/hcaa2125.html

[SkipperSue]

This is another of those hobbies that I have tried. I still have all my stuff and 2 planes. One is a Tiger (something) trainer and a 1/5th scale Piper Cub. The Cub has an 82 inch wing span! I think I had more fun building them than flying them. I too had an instructor help me with the teather method, his and my control boxes wired together. I hadn't soled yet and a big RC airshow came to Hartness int. We would camp out there and just drool over all the really neet planes there. I got a wild hair to go back to our club's field about 50 miles away and just do some taxi runs on the runway. I'm not exactly sure what happened next. I was doing good in getting the plane up to speed and raising the tail but somehow I hit the trottle too fast and it lifted off!!! I have a Saito .90 4 stroke engine in the Cub and the torque caused the plane to quickly bank left. At this point in time I hadn't had any rudder experience but I tried anyway. The plane evened out in a low left bank and I lost sight of it behind our fields little shed. It hit the ground as I panicked and dropped the throttle too much. The next thing I see is one of the planes wheels come bouncing up and down from behind the shed.
I haven't tried it since that time.

[mb82]

I want to get into the hobby so I decided one of those little HF planes would get me started. Yeah I realized quickly it won't teach me much but hey seeing it fly strait into the ground from 60ft up under full throttle has taught me something... I need to learn how to fly.

[toypusher]

Nice planes. I used to fly about 20 years ago, but the building was always the best part for me. My all time favorite was the Piper Cub that I built. I always wanted to play with the ducted fan engines, but could not affore them. I would be nice to get back into it some day, but teardrops are my building hobby now!!

[Ira]

I want to get into the hobby so I decided one of those little HF planes would get me started. Yeah I realized quickly it won't teach me much but hey seeing it fly strait into the ground from 60ft up under full throttle has taught me something... I need to learn how to fly.

I've crashed about 5 of them in my lifetime. Average flight time of about a minute and a half before crashing.

I finally built a top-winger from a kit, a glider with a 6-foot wingspan, and that was a lot easier to fly.

Took me 3 minutes to crash THAT one.

[mb82]

I want to get into the hobby so I decided one of those little HF planes would get me started. Yeah I realized quickly it won't teach me much but hey seeing it fly strait into the ground from 60ft up under full throttle has taught me something... I need to learn how to fly.

I've crashed about 5 of them in my lifetime. Average flight time of about a minute and a half before crashing.

I finally built a top-winger from a kit, a glider with a 6-foot wingspan, and that was a lot easier to fly.

Took me 3 minutes to crash THAT one.

My last flight( before I ran out of wings) lasted 15mins before I nearly hit myself and lost control flying it into the electric fence in my backyard. I need to head back to HF for some more wings. The wings on those things are not super tough but the body has taken some hits that I can't believe it is still together afterword.

[dovaka]

ill stick to a cessna 310 that i can fit in
surprisingly i cant fly one of those remote control planes but i can fly a 8 passanger plane to the other side of the country without blinking

[Ira]

I want to get into the hobby so I decided one of those little HF planes would get me started. Yeah I realized quickly it won't teach me much but hey seeing it fly strait into the ground from 60ft up under full throttle has taught me something... I need to learn how to fly.

I've crashed about 5 of them in my lifetime. Average flight time of about a minute and a half before crashing.

I finally built a top-winger from a kit, a glider with a 6-foot wingspan, and that was a lot easier to fly.

Took me 3 minutes to crash THAT one.

My last flight( before I ran out of wings) lasted 15mins before I nearly hit myself and lost control flying it into the electric fence in my backyard. I need to head back to HF for some more wings. The wings on those things are not super tough but the body has taken some hits that I can't believe it is still together afterword.

My very first plane was a Cox prebuilt, in 1983 or so, in Brooklyn. My friend and I were unemployed at the same time, and we SPENT our time drinking mini-kegs of Dinkel-Acker and flying these planes.

And on our very first time out, we almost killed a guy who was practicing his putting in the park.

I emailed Dale this story when he first told me was getting into the hobby, because we had NO IDEA about the power of these things, and this plane had a tiny .049 gas engine. (Don't know if that's the correct number, but it's the smallest they made.)

This guy is putting, my buddy is at the controls, and the plane is dive-bombing right for his head from 100, 200 feet, and descending like 20 feet per second, right for his head.

Now, I am not exaggerating here when I say it was headed right for his head. It was like an expert aviator was AIMING it there.

I look over at my friend, his gaze and whole body is gripped in terror, trying to save this guy's life--and at the very last second, it pulled up.

Maybe 10 feet from his head? And 10 feet is NOT a lot in this kind of situation.

That was one hell of a lesson.

In my next post, I'll tell you the story about the plane that flew out of radio control, paralleling the Verazzano Bridge merrily on its way to Staten Island to kill someone THERE.

[Arne]

Most good clubs have training programs, which are a must for 95% of the newbies.... saves a lot of repair time...

Even 'real' pilots have trouble flying r/c without some training...

Like one fellow r/c pilot said: "I was flying inverted and was getting too close to the ground, so I gave it some up elevator".... He got the 'crash of the year' award....

[emiller]

I used to fly a little Cessna looking airplane in Portland, OR in the early 80's. I thought about getting back into it but have to many other projects and my two hobbies right now eat up every minute. (camping and building a 1939 Chevy coupe streetrod)

[SteveH]

I've been flying airplanes since '79, and helicopters since '85. Love the hobby...it's to me like catnip is to a cat. As a matter of fact, the main reason I have the teardrop is to camp out at helicopter funflys.

[Arne]

regarding illegal immigrants... don't want to steal the thread, but saw this..

http://www.snopes.com/photos/politics/mexicoflag.asp

[cracker39]

Arne, That’s a lot like my Alpha, only larger. I’m still flying the Alpha trainer. Hopefully, this week, I’ll fly both the seaplane and the Explorer L for the first time.

MB82, most of those Harbor Freight planes don’t fly well in any wind at all, and they don’t have ailerons, so you really don’t learn the principals of flying. The larger the easier to fly…get yourself a size 40 trainer and a good instructor to fly with you on the buddy box.

Ira, so far, I’ve only had two crashes with the same plane, the Alpha. The second wasn’t really a crash. It took a bad hop on landing and nosed in and broke out the firewall which I replaced.

I too, enjoy the building as much if not more than the flying.

I definitely agree about getting proper instruction. Trying to fly on your own will usually result in money down the drain. I was lucky as there is a guy in the club that I joined who is a teacher and he has the patience to instruct new RC pilots. He stuck with me for over 3 months (2-3 hours at the field each week) that it took me to solo. The hardest part to learn is the landing. When I finally mastered that, I made my solo flight.

Another suggestion…Until you’re really experienced, let an experienced pilot fly a new airplane and get it trimmed out for you. I have two that I haven’t flown yet, but others have flown them for me.

[Classic Finn]

This is what my son and I are building at the moment when weve got time. Its a Nitro PT-17 Stearman 40

http://www.raidentech.com/enlarge.html? ... _210492652

And this is a little plane Ive had for quite awhile already even though its electric..Lil Tigermoth..

http://www.raidentech.com/elbrtimorare.html

Its a great hobby, and even more fun to fly.. We just love the biplanes.

And here is another favorite with a very nice shape and look to it..The TB20

http://www.hobby-lobby.com/tb20.htm

Classic Finn