Beginning to fly RC
It looks easier than it is...
If you think that flying a model airplane is as simple as controlling an RC car model, you will be
in for a surprise.
Many hobby stores sell models to beginners that are flimsy and/or hard to repair.
The equipment may be cheap, but you get what you pay for. Your first flight will last only a few seconds and
is likely to result in serious damage to the model. Helicopters (other
than the coaxial micro helicopters) are even harder to fly than fixed
wing aircraft.
In fact, learning to fly a model airplane by yourself is about the hardest way to do it.
We strongly urge beginners to stop by at Waveny Park on a Sunday morning and talk to some of our members.
We have taught dozens of kids and adults how to fly. We can recommend equipment, and best of all, we
will teach you how to fly, for free.
One of our flight instructors will let you fly our club training plane via the "buddy box".
With this ingenious setup, both student and teacher have a controller. The moment the student loses control,
the instructor overrides the student's controls, and brings the airplane back to stable flight. This method
virtually eliminates any chance of a crash, and gives the student about 15min of flight per battery pack,
without costly repairs. On your first flight you will see the instructor intervene many times.
These first few minutes of flight are the most expensive if you try on your own.
If you absolutely insist on learning it all by yourself, get a simulator like
RealFlight,
Phoenix,
FS One,
AeroFly,
ClearView or the likes. They will allow you to connect a remote control to your PC and
practice flying there. These simulators are not only very realistic, they also make excellent training tools,
and go for about $100-$200.
We are often asked to recommend airplanes and RC components. As serious modelers, most of us have a hard time
recommending some of the very cheap ready-to-fly (RTF) systems that are sold at many hobby stores. The electronic
components inside such models are often so lousy that they can only be thrown away once the air frame of the model
is beyond repair. Worse, the transmitters usually have no connector to be buddy boxed, which means no training on your
own airplane. On the other hand it also makes no sense to go out and buy a beautiful, expensive model as a beginner.
Below some recommendations what to get.
- Transmitter: you want a 2.4GHz system, where you don't have to worry about frequency conflicts with other
club members. A large number of us flies
Spektrum-based
transmitter/receivers. For about $160, the
Spektrum DX6i is a solid entry level choice, and for
another $60 more you can get the
Spektrum DX7, a transmitter that you may not outgrow for several years.
- Airplane: get a foam based airplane (foamie). They are cheap, quick to put together, take a lot of abuse, and are
easily repaired. If you can, get one with a "brushless" motor: they are more efficient, i.e. the battery lasts longer.
- We used to recommend the Multiplex
EasyStar, but Multiplex has not updated their product in many years,
and competition has come in. The big plus about the EasyStar is that it is a pusher: the propeller is behind
the wing, out of harm's way. If you stall on the approach and put the nose into the ground, the damage is
very limited. Any model that has the propeller in the front will invariable suffer greater damage.
However, the model still does not come with a brushless motor and the original speed controller cannot handle
lithium polymer batteries. They do sell an upgrade kit though.
- The
E-Flite Apprentice 15e ($300) and
Park Zone's Radian ($250) are foam-based models that come ready to fly
with a Spektrum
DX5e. The transmitter is quite anemic, but should you decide to upgrade it later,
you can simply bind your model to the new transmitter, since the receiver uses the Spektrum DSM technology.
-
For about $250, the Radian Pro
from ParkZone has pretty much everything you need to get airborne except the transmitter. We have about half a dozen club
members flying this model.
-
Another popular model is the ParkZone
T-28D Trojan ($240).
It is very easy to fly but requires a separate transmitter.
- For batteries, you want lithium polymer (LiPo) ones: they have more
capacity, can be recharged more often, and weigh less. However, they are much
more delicate than NiMh based batteries, and can be easily destroyed if not handled properly.
Talk to one of the club members or a knowledgeable person at a hobby
store before you buy spare batteries: they need to have the right
voltage and discharge ("C") rating, require the correct charger etc.
In summary, expect to spend about $300-$500 to get equipment that can be carried
forward. This means that you can fly your next model with the same transmitter, or upgrade your transmitter
and fly the old model with the new transmitter, use the old batteries in your next model, gut the
electronics from the model and just buy a new air frame etc.
If on the other hand you are not sure if this hobby is for you, and are prepared to eventually discard most of your initial
investment, go with something like this
RTF EasyStar, retailing for as low as about $180. Where did they cut corners
to arrive at a lower price? The system comes with a low-end FM transmitter/receiver (risk of collision with other club
member's frequencies), it uses less-powerful NiMh batteries, and it has a less-efficient brushed motor.