Best electric rc plane for biginners :)

[rcstevita]

This is the most popular radio-controlled model airplane in Lithuania. IDEAL for beginners. Any experienced pilot from Lithuania will confirm that this airplane named ‘PUTINUKAS’ - the No.1 choice!

rc-stevita.weebly.com

[Rockin Robbins]

Well, let's put the link in there first rc-stevita.weebly.com THEN I'll say my piece. Ruh, roh, followed the link and this isn't the website that I visited a week or so ago. There's no purchase info here.

Referencing the info I got previously from the other website: 100 Lithuanian Litas (LTL) is equal to $40.58, a great price, which will make it worthwhile to ship. We don't know what is included in the price, but we do know that motor and ESC ($30.41), propeller ($4.05), servos ($21.90), DX5e plus AR500 radio ($113.53) and prop saver ($3.65) are additional equipment.

That would yield a total price of $240.48 plus shipping, a kinda steep price that could be trimmed a fair amount with careful component selection. Still for a beginner who needs a complete package, it's in Parkzone Radian territory and I bought one of those, so I know it's a decent price point. Remember that beginners pay a little more to get a complete package that will fly right out of the box. Experience people with compulsive tweak disorder try to shave the price and install components for enhanced performance. My goal would be to find a profitable way to shave that sales price to under $200 because shipping will add quite a bit from Lithuania. I'd make the RTF planes up in Lithuanian flag colors too. The fact that they come from Lithuania is an important part of what makes them cool.

All that being said and complimented, by no means can the Pukinukas be called a beginner plane. It's a good design for a second plane, being the spitting image of a clipped wing 2 meter sailplane. His videos from the other site show the thing look like it floats out of his hand on launch, tons of lift and stability--very nice plane.

But I'm a strong believer that planes for newbies need to be completely RTF, all components included, batteries, charger, radio, even the receiver batteries, ala Horizon Hobbies. There are too many ways for an inexperienced flier to build a plane that simply won't fly. Nothing like a couple of those newbies who get mad and trash the feedback sections of the website when there's nothing wrong with the plane as designed.

Check out Hobby Lobby's site for comments on the Easy Star for a quick lesson on why you need to eliminate all the variables when you're selling to newbies. Their ingenuity in finding ways to build it wrong far outweigh your design ability, and they outnumber you to boot! Make an RTF version and eliminate the certainty of being trashed on the Internet.

Secondly, there needs to be a complete inventory of spare parts available. I don't mean wing cores, although they should be available too, I mean complete wing assemblies, complete fuselage assemblies, things a newbie can use to rebuild their wrecked plane and start smiling again.

Thirdly, you need to spiff up that website. You're doing a lot of things right and there's no clue there. You are selling for a fixed shipping price worldwide. That's golden! You have great videos that aren't there. Hey man, those videos show a plane with great personality that can't be seen on your present site.

But quit selling it as a beginner plane. It isn't. If you want to market it as a beginner plane you might make an RTF, perhaps with a slightly larger wingspan to slow it down. You'll still have an obstacle, selling a four-channel plane as a beginner plane. Nothing wrong with that but legitimizing a four-channel as a primary trainer is going to take some demonstrating and selling. This plane has a little dihedral, plus ailerons. That is a great mix for the purpose.

So I think you have two airplanes here. If you can package and sell a true beginner airplane that works, you build a customer loyalty that will sell all the other planes you make. My advice is to make that first priority. You need it to be

• Truly RTF. Just charge it up and fly. How about some beginner flying instructions and links to Wattflier and other Internet RC forums in the package?
• A complete inventory of appropriate parts that a beginner can easily use to keep their plane in flying form.
• Some threads on the major Internet forums by, for and about learning to fly with the Putinukas.

Good luck. Lithuania needs to be a player in the RC world.

[Tsavah]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

Well, let's put the link in there first rc-stevita.weebly.com THEN I'll say my piece.

I can understand the desire to advertise a new product, but let's face it, postage is expensive. A newbie pilot needs to find a way to avoid the extra expense and have something that is ready to go once the battery is charged up. In my experience that means an indoor flyer that is very light weight and comes in a storage box that is easy to fit on the front seat of just about any car made. The fewer channels the model needs the better and it should be a high wing trainer design rather than something fancy. Another tote box of half the size can hold all the normal accessories one might want, to include repair tools, parts, a better charger, and a snack. The hard part is finding a large indoor place to fly whenever the mood strikes. Often that means going to an RC Club indoor event, but normally that is only once a month for 3 or so hours and there is often a fee to be paid. The next option is waiting for a calm morning or evening when the winds are less than 2 mph, or you might end up chasing the fealtherweight model into someone's yard, or worse, the next county.

[Rockin Robbins]

I am definitely against learning to fly indoors. My experience shows that tall grass is your best friend when learning to fly and that hard floors are your worst enemy. I'd rather hit a tree trunk at full speed than land hard on a gymnasium floor. With a Champ or a Vapor you'll survive the tree encounter, pick up the plane and toss it back into the air. Either plane will have lots of shattered stuff, prop guaranteed, from hitting the gymnasium floor.

If you check out the Putinukas, it is a great size for transport and easily could be transported in a box. Over tall grass it would be darned indestructable, as it is nothing but a clipped wing 2 meter sailplane. It is a 4-channel, but I don't call that a liability. It has dihedral and could be flown 3-channel easily, either rudder/elevator or aileron/elevator. I disagree that the fewer channels the better. 2-channel planes are a freaking disaster unless you're a free flight expert already.

The only thing wrong with the Putinukas is it isn't available as a true RTF and it doesn't have a full parts inventory that a beginner can handle. It's a kit.

He has worldwide shipping for a reasonable flat rate and it comes in right around what a Radian would cost. He's just a little bit of marketing away from a great success. A bit more effort and he's got a phenomenon there.

[AEAJR]

There is nothing wrong with learning to fly indoors. In fact it has many things to recommend it.

For one thing you are not tied to the weather. As a new pilot I was frustrated that I could not fly because of rain or wind or snow or .... weather.

Since you are not dealing with wind you learn to fly the airplane rather than to fight the wind.

You are not likely to end up in a tree at most indoor flying sites.

I can't comment on the plane discussed above, but there are plenty of slow flyers that are wonderful indoors.

The T-IFO
The GWS Slow Stick,
The Parkzone Ember and Vapor,
The Hobbico Uberlites

I will admit that I have never taught indoors as I don't have a reliable indoor flying site available. However, if I did I think it would probably become the preferred training spot.

[Rockin Robbins]

Just remember if you're learning indoors, you will do MUCH more damage to your plane than you would have outside. Every surface indoors is rock hard and unyielding. When you interact with any of them, your plane breaks. Grass and trees (except the trunk itself) are very forgiving in that they absorb most of the force of impact, not the plane.

Vapor and Ember are wonderful indoors. Their weak spots are the plastic joiners that the carbon fiber rods plug into. That plastic is VERY fragile. However a dot of CA and you're flying again. The major indoors flying problem would be broken props. Bring spares and know how to replace them. They install differently from other airplanes.

T-IFO would be darned near unbreakable and would love a gymnasium.

I am entirely ignorant about the Hobbico Uberlites. Guess I'd better educate myself there.

The Slow Stick for a beginner absolutely would not like the confines of a gymnasium. My Slow Stick first flight was in an area larger than a gymnasium and I felt like a bee in a bottle, constantly turning to avoid the outside of the area, unable to cruise in a straight line long enough to get a good feel for trim. It wasn't a pretty sight. An experienced flier could fly a Slow Stick indoors with no problem. I figure as a beginner if you can't fly 10 seconds in a straight line your area is too small.

Of course the other thing against the SS is that it is a kit and I'm a strong believer, thanks to Ed's reasoning, that a rank beginner deserves to start out with a plane that can absolutely be guaranteed to fly well out of the box.

I'm thinking a Champ would be a great gymnasium flier and not as likely as the Vapor and Ember to be damaged. Again, bring propellers and know how to replace them.

[dditch66]

In the USA, you can get the Hawksky:
Hawksky Review

Internationally, HobbyKing has the Bixler

Both are based on the easystar and cheaper. I like the hawksy cause it was not that hard to upgrade my motor after 20+ hours of flying the stock setup. It's easy to fix if the breaks are clean and you can add fiberglass rods tapped onto the fuse or wings to strengthen it.

[Sakai's Freedom Flight]

I like the Ember II very much as an introductory bird, exclusively for flat-calm conditions over soft grass or, if you've got a friend locked up in the loony bin with a comfortable, large padded room, you could pop in for a visit and a flight if he's not violent or, if so, have him put in a straight jacket first and then fly. Other than that, all that wood in the gym sure looks unforgiving. But if one can buy bird after bird and doesn't get a sentimental attachment to each bird, which I definately do, then go for it in the gym! No pain, no gain!!! Maybe it's just me but I've had enough pain already and that's why I fly--pure joy with as little pain as possible. But this could change and violently smashing birds might be my next presicribed therapy to keep me from becoming..."unsound". At that stage I'd rather check myself in to the loony bin--if I could bring my birds.

Fellow flyers: I cannot find the "thank you" feature I see under our avatar headings. I wanna thank some of you....

[Jezmo]

Originally Posted by Sakai's Freedom Flight

I like the Ember II very much ........

Fellow flyers: I cannot find the "thank you" feature I see under our avatar headings. I wanna thank some of you....

Hi Jim, Take a look in the far right lower corner of the post where you would like to thank someone. You will see a "button" with a green check mark. It's labeled Thanks. Hope that helps.

[Rockin Robbins]

Originally Posted by Sakai's Freedom Flight

I like the Ember II very much as an introductory bird, exclusively for flat-calm conditions over soft grass or, if you've got a friend locked up in the loony bin with a comfortable, large padded room, you could pop in for a visit and a flight if he's not violent or, if so, have him put in a straight jacket first and then fly. Other than that, all that wood in the gym sure looks unforgiving. But if one can buy bird after bird and doesn't get a sentimental attachment to each bird, which I definately do, then go for it in the gym! No pain, no gain!!! Maybe it's just me but I've had enough pain already and that's why I fly--pure joy with as little pain as possible. But this could change and violently smashing birds might be my next presicribed therapy to keep me from becoming..."unsound". At that stage I'd rather check myself in to the loony bin--if I could bring my birds.

Fellow flyers: I cannot find the "thank you" feature I see under our avatar headings. I wanna thank some of you....

I feel the same way about my Vapor. It is a bit fragile to be flying in a hard-surfaces environment. I fly it indoors, but I'm much more relaxed flying it outside over grass. Even if I hit a tree trunk I bounce off and fly away, but those plastic joiners are the same as your Ember and very fragile when they hit something hard and unyielding. The only carbon fiber I've ever broken was landing gear. But those plastic fittings are unforgiving. After over two years they're mostly CA now!

[solentlife]

As someone who lives in the Baltic States and as an Brit expat - I can compare the two .... a) UK and gear available etc., b) Baltic States and lack of .....

If you are willing to spend money - you can get gear and planes form such as Pilotage ... and eHobby .... but they are based on external support lines, companies. They even re-brand what is often available at Hobby King at substantially less price.

Baltic is a developing market as at moment there are not so many RC pilots to support sales sites like in Europe / USA etc. It will come - but it's slow when you consider many people are only earning $400 or so a month and small populations.

I applaud any local in Baltic trying to develop ... it's sorely needed. I myself have tried in Latvia, but again it's small limited market.

On the subject of trainers and whether 3 or 4ch .... glider style or not .... given that you can have a real beaut of a glider with high apsect ratio wings stall out on landing as I've seen / experienced in past and then a short span wide chord 4ch trainer be as docile and beginner suited .......... it comes down to set-up and design.

I agree that RTF is not a bad way to go nowadays ... as there are not so many of the old fashioned Model Shops about, where the owner / assistant would be experienced and able to guide the newbie buyer NOT only in buying, but also along the building / set-up route as well. Most I see now are not Model Shops but what I term general Hobby Shops ... catering for much wider as they need sales to stay open.

I still cling to the old idea of a high wing low aspect ratio medium sized trainer. I do advocate 4ch though ... in UK a good example was the Yamamoto ... which undoudtedly inspired many other similar copies .. as it was itself.

To Original Poster "rcstevita" ... if ever up Ventspils way ? Contact me and we'll have a beer and a fly !!

[Davethebluessinger]

Spend the cash and get yourself a Wot4 FoamE.
The thing will fly itself if need be and can be set up to be more and more aerobatic as you progress.
I've had a wide selection of planes all with different characteristics (check the signature) and I bought my Wot4 AFTER most of them, it's very relaxing on tame throws but superb as an aerobat at the flick of the DR switch! It's my favourite plane without doubt. At £100 UK price it's an ARTF - just needs a radio and a 2.2 3S Lipo. I doubt you'll ever get fed up with it so it's great value at the end of the day.

[squidger]

I had a Putinukas ages ago and found it to be brilliant. I got it on ebay new for a very good price and it came ready to go minus receiver/tx. I wanted another and visited the site, tried to buy and the site kept crashing so I mailed them several times and they never answered. I have since noticed on the site that the prices have tripled so now not a financially viable proposition. Shame really as it was a good flyer and I had loads of fun with it.

putinukas in mild wind

Word of warning to anyone who gets one. Don't use superglue on it or it will dissappear before your very eyes.

[Big Johnny]

Solentlife. How is it living in the Baltic States. I have seen picture and it really look like a beautiful place full of traditions. What are the people like??? I would love to visit that part of the world.