What did you learn on? How long did it take?

[stevecooper]

My 30 year old Sig's still "on task" bubsteve

[Yakfishingfool]

I picked up a HZ champ and taxied it once or twice and tossed her up. If flying means taking off, landing, and making it go where you want then it was only a battery or two. No crashes yet, but only a few hours of stick time so far. My first four channel will be my PT-40 trainer. Almost got her built. Will let you know how that goes. Also flying a night vapor.

[JetPlaneFlyer]

Originally Posted by solentlife

From back to front : Wanderer 98" Thermal, Zlin Akrobat Scale, Wot 4 with piped 61, P6 Pursuit, Phase 6 with fully symmet wing. (A small collection of my vast hangar in those days ... mid 80's)

Nigel,

The Zlin is another model I used to fly back in the day, it's the Pilot kit, yes? That one is sitting in my garage still but it's a bit knocked about as I found it had a pretty viscous stall which caught me out a couple of times.

I have the Phase 6 'pro' version too. I probably should have got the semi symmetrical version because I found the pro needed a real strong wind.

[mattman0182]

I only have two planes lol. Ill never catch up to you guys!

[solentlife]

Originally Posted by JetPlaneFlyer

Nigel,

The Zlin is another model I used to fly back in the day, it's the Pilot kit, yes? That one is sitting in my garage still but it's a bit knocked about as I found it had a pretty viscous stall which caught me out a couple of times.

I have the Phase 6 'pro' version too. I probably should have got the semi symmetrical version because I found the pro needed a real strong wind.

Correct - Pilot Zlin Akrobat ... fitted with Irvine 20 .... and yes it could stall quite viciously. It actually suffered a flat spin into the ground a day before a scale meet ... pushed the wing up into the fuselage ... repairs put her well down the judging list !
There's also an error in the scale documentation in the kit ... the tail should have the same colours set-up. There's one band missing !

I plan to build another in foam soon ! with decent electrics fitted.... as well as various other models of Pilot, Veron etc. I had. I even have a close copy plan version of the Wot4 .. that should be interesting ...

Pity I'm not in UK - I'd pester you for the Zlin ... I think my ex-wife still has mine in the garage of my 'ex-house' ... but hasn't replied yet. I think my Veron 1 1/2 strutter is there as well ...

Nigel

[solentlife]

Originally Posted by mattman0182

I only have two planes lol. Ill never catch up to you guys!

You will !

Nigel

[Arkitexas]

As a kid (1960's) built and flew a few gliders and .049 CL planes. Insert 35 years of family, work, owning businesses, etc. Restarted RC in 2005 with a Firebird Commander 2. Completed about 8 flights with 8 crashes and then lost the plane in a light wind. I never could fly that plane well.

Next was an underpowered Zagi XS wing. Went through 10 to 15 crashes, repairs, upgrades, mods, etc. That XS now has several hundred flights and is still going strong. This is the plane on which I actually learned to fly. That wing can take a lickin' and keep on tickin'.

Bought a RealFlight 3.0 RC simulator and tuned my skills. It's a great learning tool. I've crashed thousands of planes on the simulator. Also great for grandkids so they don't crash my real models.

At the same time I went through about 7 or 8 Air Hog Aero Ace biplanes which taught me to deal with the wind, to work on the CG, and to be patient.

All this was self taught over about 2 years. After that point I decided I could fly as a novice-intermediate. Now it's 7 years later and I'm still learning as an intermediate.

Rick

[FlyWheel]

Originally Posted by Fig

Thanks. I am really looking forward to picking this up. Just with my current list of planes it will be nice not to have to move sliders and re-trim every time I switch to a different plane. Plus I want to get my old gas planes back in the air and fit them with new receivers and refresh the engines. I have a couple planes that haven't flown yet that I will need receivers for as well. The plan is to get one radio and dial up each plane.

I am still not 100% sold on the 2.4ghz/digital over the 72mhz servo feel due to lag, and don't want to buy a ton of digital servos but it looks like this really is the way to go and not have a trunk full of transmitters laying around.

The TX doesn't control the servo, it just transmits the commands to the reciever. The reciever then moves the servo.

[Fig]

Originally Posted by FlyWheel

The TX doesn't control the servo, it just transmits the commands to the reciever. The reciever then moves the servo.

Looking at what I wrote I probably should have split that into two sentences. On the digital servo part my comment about buying digital was more addressing the fact that they tout things like "Digital precision and power". I have a pretty fast model that I would feel much better if it had the latest servos in.

The second half that should have been split into another sentence was "but it looks like this really is the way to go and not have a trunk full of transmitters laying around." which I meant that having a new 2.4ghz transmitter with multiple plane capability is where it's headed. I just picked up a DX6i just so that I could BNF with my Parkzone models and store all the trim settings. It's nice and I wish the wind would calm down some.

[hkeelljr]

It took me several flights with the super mini cub to get comfortable, along with the simulator program. And then came the magic flight, maybe five or six minutes and I flew in a big circle, was I ever stoked. But for whatever reason I never could seen to duplicate that flight. What I really would like to get sometime, is one with ailerons. After practicing with the simulator, that more than likely contributed to a majority of my crashes.

[solentlife]

Just a comment ... lots of reference to simulators. Excellent and totally agree that all should have one - blimey I've been at this hobby since a young kid and I'm 57yrs old now ... and I practice AND CRASH on a sim.

Anyway - my comment .......... it's all well and good flying a sim - but usually the Tx is neutral trimmed as well as the sim model. Wind and conditions are often left default, runway is inline with any wind etc. etc.

How's about this ......... another person alter trims and weather conditions so all is more like a maiden in non-steady wind ... hand Tx to you ... WITHOUT looking at trims - take-off ! Boy is that different !! NOW you have to fight getting trims back ... unsettled winds .... yep - maiden flight simulated.


Just a thought !!

Nigel