GETTING STARTED
2002 Update:
It has been several years since I wrote the article below and it still is valid. BUT things change. Do to some Technology changes namely the production of extremely low cost micro servos and tiny receivers that you can afford to buy. It is now possible to sell a low cost airplane that almost anyone can fly safely.
The advent of the "Park Flyer or Slow Flyer" airplane has changed everything for the new flyer. For under $200 you can buy a kit with everything you need to start flying. This includes a 3 channel radio, airplane, electric motor, and battery. The only thing you may need to buy is a battery charger and batteries for the transmitter.
The Park / Sow flyer type airplanes are perfect for a new flyer to learn with. You can fly them in any large open space and not worry too much about crashing or hurting someone, not that it is not possible. The electric motor still spins the prop fast enough to hurt your hand if you are dumb enough to stick your finger in it. And you can break any airplane ..Trust me, I know.
I still think it would be a good idea to get someone to help you out with your first few flights, but you could buy a plane like this and learn to fly it all by yourself. Once you learn the basics of flying around you are going to want something a little faster and more powerful, hey it’s a man thing….. That’s when you want to re-read the article below and look for a good club you help you take the next step.
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Okay you want to try flying radio control models.Great!
Here is how to get started without making too many expensive mistakes.
HOLD ON JUST A SECOND.
Do you really want to do this??? RC Flying is expensive and can be dangerous. I am not trying to scare anyone off, just stating facts. If you can't afford to spend about $500.00 you are not going to get started quickly. (see "How Much Will it Cost" elsewhere on this web site.) Plus you are going to want to spend probably $500 a year from then on and maybe much more on the hobby. You of course can get away with spending less, but many people spend about this much or more. Also keep in mind you can lose this investment faster flying, then in the stock market. One second of confusion or an equipment failure and you have a pile of balsa wood, we say the airplane has been "re-kit-ed".
If you are a surgeon, artist, dentist or other vocation or profession in which the use of your hands is critical. You might want to think about this again. This hobby can be dangerous, people loose fingers or hurt their hands seriously every year. The props on models spin at over 10000 RPM and are almost invisible when running. It only takes a second of not paying attention to get hurt. If you are careful the chance of injury is small, but even a small chance of losing your livelihood may not be worth it to you.
Most clubs make sure new members are aware of safety rules and obey them, but I see people do stupid things almost every time I fly, sometimes it's even someone else! For the above reasons this is not a hobby for young children under the age of about 14, get them into RC cars or boats or maybe gliders, it can be just as expensive, but is far safer. (Please don't flame me, Yes I know your little darling learned to fly at 4 is a better flyer then anyone at your club and has won the nationals three times. What I am saying is that it is too dangerous a hobby for the great majority of young children.) And a personal gripe if you don't have someone to watch your kids please don't bring them to the field when you are flying..
Okay now that you have been warned and you still want to do it. The first thing to buy is NOTHING! DO NOT go out to your local hobby store and just buy something. This is definitely the wrong way to get started. Most reputable hobby stores will not steer you wrong, but they are in business to make money, they will happily sell you anything you insist on. Of course every product that they have in stock is wonderful, and any product they don't have is crap.
The thing you need most from the hobby store right now is the name and location of your local flying club. If there is no flying club close to you, and you don't own a hundred acre farm you might want to think about your hobby choice again. Unless a club is close, you are unlikely to fly often enough to make the investment and expense worthwhile. Most local clubs will have maps at the hobby store, get one, flying fields are seldom well marked or easy to find.
Wait for a Sunday with nice weather and go out to the field about one o'clock. (Most clubs do not fly before twelve on Sunday.) There will probably be someone there. Don't be shy, talk to someone! To start a conversation just say something nice about their airplane and ask a question and you are off. You will almost definitely get a friendly response, everyone I know is only too happy to talk to someone new to the hobby, or ANYONE else about airplanes. You will soon realize that flying is about 1% flying and 99% talk with a little building thrown in at odd moments.
Ask if there is an instructor at the field you could talk to. Club instructors are there to make sure new flyers get a good start. Not only do they teach flying for free, they will make sure you know what to buy, when and where.
If there are no instructors at the field or they are busy, as most are, talk to anyone who has a nice looking airplane. The nicer looking the airplane the better the pilot. Well not always, but it is a sign that they MAY know what they are talking about. You will find that EVERYONE will have an opinion about what kind of first airplane to buy, what radio, what engine and on and on. Just take notes, ask lots of questions and after awhile someone will start to make sense.
Some clubs have instructors that are certified to allow non-insured, non-members to try flying a model to see if they like it. (Read that as: hook them before they get away.) It is important that the instructor be certified as there are insurance and legal requirements that have to be met to protect the club and land owner, not to mention yourself.
After you get some idea what you might want in an airplane, take a look at the ceiling at your local hobby shop. Many modelers will sell extra or out grown models on consignment at a hobby store, which are often hung from the ceiling. You might get lucky and find something that will let you get started at a big savings. It is imperative that you to ask someone in the hobby to look it over before you buy it. There is a lot of junk out there and that wonderful deal might be a plane you will not be capable of flying for years. Ditto about looking in the newspaper classified advertisements.
After you have an airplane and all the necessary equipment, have joined the club of your choice and the AMA, find a good instructor and follow his instructions exactly. Never try to fly by yourself even at the club, without being hooked up to a buddy cord with an instructor on the other end. The instructor will tell you when you are ready to fly without help. This may take anywhere from a week to a year.
Take your time you can learn to do this, it just takes awhile. You cannot learn by yourself. You must have someone teach you how to fly. If you try it alone, you will crash your airplane, injury yourself , someone's property, or more likely all of the above!
You can also learn some bad habits, one guy I met taught himself how to fly somehow. Later he found out that his transmitter was setup wrong, up was down and down was up. It did not make any difference to HIM, flying HIS airplane, but he had learned to control the airplane that way and could never change the transmitter to the correct way. Of course he could never fly someone else's plane and no one could fly his.
EQUIPMENT
I am going to try to keep from mentioning any one
manufacturer. This is meant to be a general guide not a shopping list.
AIRPLANES.
You want an airplane that says it is a TRAINER. Not all
airplanes that look like trainers are trainers. Not all trainers are really good trainers.
Now that I have you confused, what is a trainer?
Trainers are high wing planes, that means that the wing is mounted on top of the fuselage. With the wing mounted high, the airplane is more stable and self righting. It should be somewhat hard, but not impossible to roll a trainer or fly upside down because of the high wing and dihedral built into the wing continually tries to bring the airplane back to straight level flight.
Think of it like this; hold a yard stick with two fingers at the top and let it hang down. Now with the other hand push it to the side. When you stop pushing the yard stick will self right itself. Now if you hold the yard stick at the bottom and push it to the side it may flip over, it is not stable at all.
Dihedral is the V shape of the wing (the wing tips are higher then the middle.) This also helps make the airplane stable. As the airplane banks in a turn the high wing loses lift and the low wing gains lift causing the airplane to level off.A good trainer should be able to be put in a turn and then hands off without doing anything it should level off all by itself.
In an aerobatic airplane you would not want this effect. That is why most aerobatic planes are low wing, with the wing mounted under the fuselage. For aerobatics you need a plane that will move in any direction and once started will remain in that attitude. An airplane like this is designed to be unstable and is suicide for a new pilot.
Most any trainer plane being sold as such will do, but some are better then others, finding the better ones is the hard part. This is why you need to talk to some pilots and get their opinion on trainers they have flown. An instructor gets to fly almost everything, so he should be considered an expert when it comes to picking an airplane to buy.
If you are buying new, it would be best for you to buy an ARF = "Almost Ready to Fly". This is the fastest way to get in the air. These models are already covered and all you have to do is glue on the tail, glue the wings together, put the radio in and fly.... RIGHT !!! It will take about ten or more hours to put one together the first time, don't rush it, take your time and get some help. Be sure to get some help with the radio and control surfaces it can be tricky to get everything to work right.
Another type is the ARC = "Almost Ready to Cover "These planes are for builders that want to cover their own plane. The airplane is naked (no covering), but fully built all you have to do is put it together like the ARF.
As soon as you get your ARF built you can start building a stick built kit plane if you want to. This will take about 200 hours so you can see an ARF is a real time saver.
'Stick built kits may seem like a bargain when compared to ARF's, but they are not. Don't forget you have to buy covering, glue and tools to build them also some items that are included with ARF's are extra with kits like wheels. And of course you also have to spend a great deal of time building them. On the other side is that stick built kits are usually, but not always, better built and easier to fix.
Most trainers are 40 size airplanes which refers to the
size of the engine. The larger the engine the larger the airplane. Consider getting a 60
size trainer. Most new flyers fly too high and too far away. The much larger 60 size
airplane will be easier to see in the air, the engine will work better and it will be much
more gentle, everything will happen slower. The down side is that it is a larger airplane
which is harder to transport and carry. Of course it costs more for the airplane and
engine, props, and the engine uses more fuel. And don't forget inertia, the bigger they
are the harder they fall or crash in this case.
RADIOS
Get a four channel, that is all you need at this time. If you want to spend a little more get a six channel with dual rates on the aileron and elevator. This will allow you to turn down the amount of control with a flip of a switch. This is not too important on a trainer, but on your next plane it may help a lot. Computer radios are OVERKILL for the first time pilot,they will just confuse you even more then you already are, get something simple.
Any of the major manufactures are fine, Airtronics,
Futaba, JR. Look and see what your hobby store carries and buy that one, it will be easier
to get spare parts. AM OR FM will work, most radios now are FM. When buying new get FM,
but if you get a deal on some used equipment AM is okay, just make sure it has the gold
sticker that says it is narrow band. Anything else is too old to use and cannot be used at
any club field. Of course the radio has to be made for use with aircraft you cannot use
one made for cars and boats.
ENGINES
There are a huge number of choices and a lot depends on the kind of airplane you buy so decide on the airplane first. In general the larger the engine the more dependable it will be. Only certain size engines will fit on certain airplanes . Most airplanes are sized by the largest engine it will normally accept. Most trainers are 40 size with a few 60 size ones. The aircraft specifications will sometimes give a range of engines like 30 to 40 size always use the largest size engine in the range. A 30 engine in this case would fly, but would be sluggish, it is less dependable and the cost is about the same. In any case you can always throttle down if the 40 is too powerful. The number 40 by the way refers to .40 cubic centimeters displacement. Not cubic inches. Be careful what you buy there are also very small engines rated at .040 10 times smaller!
If you are going to buy a 40 size engine look at the 46 size ones too, they are the same physical size as the 40. The manufacturer has just made the ignition chamber a bit bigger by boring it out which makes the engine a tiny bit lighter. They will give you a little more power for just a little more money ( less for more.) A 46 will work anywhere a 40 size engine will work.
For your first engine try to stay under one hundred dollars you can buy some for as little as fifty dollars. There is no point in spending a lot of money right now on an engine. All 40 size engines will perform pretty much the same when used on a trainer. What you are buying for any extra money is durability, buy that next time. Four cycles are nice, they sound great, work well and cost twice as much. Remember "KISS" "Keep It Simple Stupid".
Engines are one thing you will want to buy new. Used
engines are not a good deal unless you know the person who is selling it to you. It is
impossible to just look at an engine and tell if it is any good.
MISC. EQUIPMENT
GLOW PLUG STARTER.
Get the kind that has the battery built in to the
starter clip. Make sure you buy one that has a charger with it. Do not use the glow driver
built into the control panel on a flightbox. The cord can get caught in the prop and you
will blow out your glow plugs. I have not had a glow plug blow out since I stopped using
the glow driver in the panel several years ago.
STARTERS
If you can afford it, get an electric starter with it's own power pack. If you can't, take out a loan. If not remember "I told you so" the next time you spend an hour flipping your engine trying to start it. The Electric starters are also safer as your hands are not near the prop.
IF you must flip the engine to start it, get a chicken stick and use it. Your fingers are very nice to have and even nicer if they are on your hand instead of in it. You can make one from a wood rod and piece of rubber hose or buy one cheap.
FUEL PUMPS
Get a hand powered crank one, not the electric one.
Electric ones force you to have a battery in your flight box making it heavy and do not
always work that well. The hand powered ones are faster and last a long time. Make sure
you are buying the one for the fuel you are going to use. They make them for gasoline and
glow fuel if you buy the wrong one the inside will melt.
FUEL
The percent of nitro is not too important for a trainer
get the cheaper kind, but make sure it has at least 5% nitro. Make sure you get 2 cycle
fuel, if you have a four cycle engine get 2 cycle anyway it just has more oil in it, which
is not a bad thing and it is cheaper. (More for less)
FLIGHT BOX
A cardboard box works fine I saw a picture in the AMA
magazine the other month that showed a flyer's cardbord box that was twenty years old! You
can buy a kit however that you build somewhat like an airplane. There are a lot of
different kinds, pick one you like that is not too heavy, it is a long way from the car to
the flight line. This is something you might want to wait and see what everyone else is
using before you buy.
MEMBERSHIPS
Most clubs charge a membership fee and a one time initiation fee, how much depends on your club. Around here it is about $50 for the membership and another 50 for the initiation fee. This is the best bargain you can get. You get a place to fly, an instructor to teach you, lots and lots of free help and somewhere to hang out with the guys.
You will also have to buy a membership in the AMA= Academy of Model Aeronautics. Almost all clubs require you to be a member of the AMA A membership is mostly for the insurance they provide, although they do have an excellent magazine and sponsor national events. The insurance protects you against medical costs for yourself and others and personal property damage that you cause. The insurance is secondary to your own health, homeowners or other insurance. Unfortunately it does not reimburse you for damage to your models do to crashing, you are on your own there. The club also has AMA coverage to protect the club and the land owner. If your club does not require insurance find another club, getting sued could ruin your whole day.
MAGAZINES
A good way to learn about the hobby is to read a magazine. The two big ones are Model Airplane News and RC Modeler there are a few others some that deal with scale modeling and specialized topics. The links to the magazine's web sites are on my home page.
The Internet is full of great information for free. One
of the best places to check out is the Newsgroup rec.models.rc.air If you have questions
this is the place to get answers. The Tower Hobbies site on the WEB has a huge list of
links The link to tower is on my home page also.
If there are any questions that you can't find the answers to, send me an EMAIL at:
John W. Wenzelburger
Page created by: wenzej@bellsouth.net Changes last made on: 6/18/2002