Beginner

Hello everyone, I'm Gary i came down to the field on saturday and spoke to a few people about the club and asked some advice, I currently have a Parkzone spitfire which Andy was kind enough to take up for me and test, he has advised me it is not a suitable aircraft to learn, I am looking for some advice on which would be a suitable aircraft to purchase to learn on and also would it be advisable to buy a seperate controller with which i can use on further aircraft i purchase, any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for your help
Gary

Hi Gary

Welcome to the forum.

I am sure the fixed wind Jedis will answer your question, but in the mean time!

I have been led to believe that the best plane to learn on is a WOT 4 or similar (high wing).

Welcolme Along (I was the one struggling to start the model next to your car)

Perhaps not a Wot 4 as they can be abit fast. Although the Foam Wot 4E is a good model.

Other candidates are the ST Models Discovery again foam and electric. In an Ideal world a I.C trainer whould be best as you can get the flying hours up quickly due to not having to wait for batteries to charge (except your RX of course) So somthing like a tudor 40 or similar. Not the most exiting model in the world but very good to learn the basics on.

Radio wise I woul say 2.4g is a must if your buying new so then its a choice of Spectrum/FAST/HOTT/etc etc the club is pretty much split between Specktrum and Futaba's Fasst system but if were honest the Speki system is better in every way (in joke there that you will soon learn)

I would say the Specktum at present is more cost efective. O and you will want a minimus of 6 channel I reckon So the DX6I or DX7 at a minimum.

Hope that helps somwhat.

M

Hey Gary, It was good to meet you again on Saturday. That little spitfire of yours will be a cracking little second model, but as I said, to learn to fly on, you will find it very difficult. It is quite sensitive to control inputs, so as you are learning how much stick input does what, you would find that it is far to easy to over control the model, and end up with it in a pile of broken bits quite quickly.

Going for a high wing trainer type aircraft will give you much more time to react to what the plane is doing, and not be so twitchy so that over controlling is not the end of the world. It will also be much more stable, and tough for those first landing attempts!

I would be tempted to go with either an Electric Wot 4 (foam). You can buy the kit from Steve Webbs in Frodsham for about £110, and all you need on top of that are some batteries and a transmitter/receiver combo. For a complete beginner, the Spektrum DX6i is a transmitter that is hard to beat for value. Pretty much all of the models that you saw on saturday at the club, could be flown with one of them, so it should keep you going for a while!

The ST models Discovery is also a good option, it is basically the same as the Wot 4, just a slightly different design. It is about the same price, and still needs a transmitter/receiver and batteries.

Both of those models are electric obviosuly, which means quiet, clean flying and no faffing around tuning an engine. If you do want to go down the IC route though, a Tudor 40 as Mark says is a good option...

Cheers!
Andy

Hi Gary and welcome.
I am a relitive beginer and wasted a lot of time and money on non-suitable models.
The big questions are how keen are you and how deep are your pockets.
If you are keen then your first equipement (Radio Control) should (IMHO) be bought with regard to keeping it for a long time and it needs to be good enough to enable to you have all the facilities to cope with the extra things you might want to add as you progress, like for example flaps and retactable undercarrage Etc. and a set that allows you to mix channels is very handy and 2.4g gives you hassle free flying but if you think it will be hobby to try and see if you like it you obviously don't want to be spending out loadsa dosh.
I recently passed my A Cert with the ST Discovery which I bought from Steve Webb's for just under £100 which came almost complete minus RX and battery but was ready to fly in about 1 hour, I just had to stick a few things together. The draw back is that being electric, as Mark says, it takes time to get the "stick time" in because you need to keep recharging batteries where as an I C powered model can rack up the hours rapidly but they are noisey, messy and you have to have a much more comprehensive flight box with batteries and fuel and "Stuff".
I have a spectrum DX6i which has done me well and I am about to upgrade to the Dx7 (if you were interested I might be persuaded to sell the DX6 for a reasonable price although I won't home for another two an a half weeks).
Hope this helps

Andy Sayle wrote:Hey Gary, It was good to meet you again on Saturday. That little spitfire of yours will be a cracking little second model, but as I said, to learn to fly on, you will find it very difficult. It is quite sensitive to control inputs, so as you are learning how much stick input does what, you would find that it is far to easy to over control the model, and end up with it in a pile of broken bits quite quickly.

Going for a high wing trainer type aircraft will give you much more time to react to what the plane is doing, and not be so twitchy so that over controlling is not the end of the world. It will also be much more stable, and tough for those first landing attempts!

I would be tempted to go with either an Electric Wot 4 (foam). You can buy the kit from Steve Webbs in Frodsham for about £110, and all you need on top of that are some batteries and a transmitter/receiver combo. For a complete beginner, the Spektrum DX6i is a transmitter that is hard to beat for value. Pretty much all of the models that you saw on saturday at the club, could be flown with one of them, so it should keep you going for a while!

The ST models Discovery is also a good option, it is basically the same as the Wot 4, just a slightly different design. It is about the same price, and still needs a transmitter/receiver and batteries.

Both of those models are electric obviosuly, which means quiet, clean flying and no faffing around tuning an engine. If you do want to go down the IC route though, a Tudor 40 as Mark says is a good option...

Cheers!
Andy

You pretty much just copied what I said to make you look cleaver, That kind of thing dosnt wash with me fella

Get you own advise!

M

Andy doesn't look a bit like a cleaver to me

I highly recommend the ST Discovery, and Spekky DX6i

double post

Hi Guys thanks for all your replies so far I had already looked at the ST Discovery and the Spektrum 6 and thought they looked a good place to start, I have also noticed that you can get the Tudor 40 in an electric version, would this be a good option as it is bigger slightly than the ST Discovery model?
In reply to Marty thanks for the offer i would definately be interested in seeing how much you would be willing sell your Spektrum 6 for thanks.

Hey Gary,

The slightly larger tudor 40 will be a little bit more stable than the smaller models (generally larger models are easier to fly, easier to see, and less susceptible to gusts of wind). However, the batteries required will be larger and more expensive. You may also have issue with charging the packs at the field, as your car battery may object to charging bigger packs repeatedly. That said, you are not a true electric flier until you have been stranded at the field with a flat car battery because of all the flight pack charging!

The other thing to bear in mind, is that the ST discovery (and Wot 4 E) are made from EPO foam, whereas the Tutor 40 is built up from bits of sliced, dried tree. The foam models will be a little bit more "bouncy" and should survive rough handling a bit better.

Andy (who has stolen this advice from a different source this time!)

PS. don't forget we have a club night at the field tomorrow Gary, I'll hopefully get chance to charge my spare TX up, and you can have a go of my docile high-winger to see how you get on

Hi Andy that would be great thanks, what time will you be there till only I live in Stoke on Trent and can't get there till bout 630 ish

All being well, I'll be there from about 5pm, until it goes dark

Hopefully the weather will stay as nice as it is tonight too!

Andy

Stoke on Trent ! Blimey, we must be good club now

Yep you are a good club the only one in Stoke has just closed so to yours it is

I've heard the Chairman at the Rhyl club is a living legend

Andy