Beginners Awareness Msg

[romihensem]

Hi guys, something that i want to share based on a fellow friend of mine's experience he had. I hope we all can benefit from this especially beginners who are about to join the rc plane world.

High wing plane and beginner plane are 2 totally DIFFERENT types of planes. I notice most beginners think high wing plane is suitable for beginners although almost all of the beginners plane are high wing planes.

A friend of mine went to a lhs and told them that hes a complete beginner with no flying experience. Wanted to get a plane to learn. Was recommended a high wing plane. Bought a rtf kit with tx. The lhs even setup the plane for him. Feeling very happy with his purchase he brought it to the field and ask us to assist him.

Some points to take note for beginners out there based on his experience.

1.Its a balsa high wing plane with no dihedral. Something like a decathlon but not. For beginners with no experience or very2 little experience, try to avoid balsa planes. Go for foam planes instead cause in the event of crashes, most of the time its easily repairable.
2. The plane is not suitable for a beginner like him in our opinion. Its not yr average beginner plane like a fire phoenix, estarter, slowstick etc which most of the guys in DH have recommended before. It is highly capable to do aerobatic and extreme maneuvers. And when another friend maidened it for him, he himself says its not recommended for him so i dont know how come the lhs could have recommended it to him in the first place.
3. It comes with a trike setup. Full house controls with ails, elev and rudder. but amazing things is the front gear is not steerable. My friend who maidened for this guy tried for about 8 times to rog but was unsuccessful which we then decided to hand launch it. If someone experience cant rog it, i dont think a beginner like him could have either. And he could have damage the plane if he tried even before flying it. And lhs set it up for him this way. Poor service by them is all i can say on this.

So the conclusion is for beginners, remember that high wing doesnt mean its a beginners plane. Try to go down to a ff or do a research in dh before buying a plane. Even if the lhs setup for u, dont take things for granted. have an experience pilot assist u in checking yr setup again and if possible maiden it for u. This way, unnecessary accidents can be prevented and we can help expand the rc community further and everyone can have more time happily flying rather than repairing. hehehe

[boliao7378]

Yes, be aware and do your own research first. Advise coming from a beginner. But listen to the LHS advise and if u not comfortable with it, don't buy yet, do more research, ask ur friends for more advise.

Always remember that the LHS personnel job is to make sales ultimately. So research, research, ask, ask and if u are in this forum don't be paiseh to post here, guys here are great! Some will suan you but most will be very happy to give u valuable advise.

I ask alot and learn alot too and yesterday manage to fly my plane without crashing for the first time. Nice to go with a beautiful plane and come back still beautiful

Invest in a good transmitter, will help u a lot , 6 channel Spektrum DX6i is good.

[joe yap]

This is just my thought.

Even before buying anything, it is always smarter to get yourself an instructor in the first place. He or she should be capable of recommending the equipment, and most importantly, using the same transmitter mode of your preference. Even with the best equipment, your instructor will not be able to save your plane if you are using different mode.

For a beginner, going through this hobby alone can be rather frustrating from time to time. My cousin gave up the hobby shortly after a few months. The main reason is that the radio set recommeded by the LHS, which he bought, is totally unreliable, and is responsible for all his crashes.

[chiadennis]

A couple of things I notice from beginner are they are afraid of asking for help or advice.
1, could be they are shy to asked.
2, could be don't know what to asked.

I think this subject came out many times about beginner wanting to start RC flying, get wrong advice only to give up before it even get started. Sad

Many beginners sees RC as a toy, what so hard about flying child's toy?

Let me share something that happen about a month back. My fault for not saying or do anything.
Father and son were at PFW, son flying the counter rotating heli, son had problem trying to hover the heli. Father took over the control, not to be peiseh the son inability to hover, it got higher and higher and the wind was blowing it towards the block of HDB. Instead of cutting the thottle, the father try to maneuver away from the flats and continue climbing. Until it was almost over the flats did the father cut the throttle. I am surprise it didn't go out of range. Anyway 12 floors it came tumbling down onto the pavement under the block. Good thing nobody was under the block, killer litter. Well I just high tail out without saying a word. When driving off I should say something, I guess my MOB kick in.

[ehawk]

For beginner, you can always drop by or make contact with folks from PFW and I am sure that you will get the assistance needed to start this hobby in the right footing, including hands on guide to flying your plane.

Cheers!

[marzin]

Fully Agreed!! folks at pfw are a very friendly bunch and helpful too

Approach Joe Yap if in doubt haha
(sori ah sabo u)

[gpsnuts]

That goes with other high wings like Piper Club and Cessna's high wing. These planes will stall without you realize it.

I always ask anyone who is keen on the this hobby to join this forum before buying anything.

[romihensem]

hmmm

yup. its just the misconception of high wing and beginner planes. most beginners confuse that. with a bit of dihedral in the wings, it can helps alot in learning for beginners...

[foxkilo]

I started trying to learn with a Slowstick some years ago and it was quite a frustrating experience. Later I learned that it was underpowered with the brushed setup.

But I found that the standard advice of getting a "high wing", "3-channel" airplane (i.e. no ailerons, just rudder for turns) for beginners is not always applicable.

The easiest airplanes to fly now are the powered glider types with upturned wing tips, like the Sky Surfer, Kinetic/Cruise 800, Mini Swift, etc. Full 4-channel, with ailerons, yet flies so much better.

Common beginner mistakes that make it tough to learn to fly are mostly due to putting CG at the wrong location, or setting too much control throw. Wonder if anyone has noticed this?

[airfield]

It is very common that any beginner stepping into LHS is extremely eager to buy very nice plane...especially scale plane. Like myself, when I first stepped into a LHS, I bought a Greatplanes SE.5A. But LHS lady was kind enough to advise me that I would not be able to handle it. I bought it, but did not fly until I mastered basic flying skill.

But agree with you guys...go to the flying field and start a conversation with any flyer around...that was what i did...eventually started flying simulator and then GWS Beaver instead

It saved me $$, time & from giving up.

From another perspective, perhaps, we who have been flying for a while should just approach them when we found them wandering around the field...just to "poison" them with this hobby.

[TWE75]

Ok ,i'm a noob here with a phoenix2k (bro rommi has help me maiden it ) and building another phoenix1.3m courtesy of another bro in dh given it to me minus all electronic still trying to fix up . Both are gliders.

But main thing is i'm looking for pple to teach me how to fly it better esp when theres wind blowing . Rommi invited me to fly with them but as i'm working shift work . Most of my offdays are on weekdays like today and tomorrow . And i rely on public transport too . So am looking for someone who fly during the weekdays too to teach me . Rommi ask me to on the wind feature on the phoenix simulator but i can't seem to find it . Not to mention my pc is down just 3 days ago until now aso haven recover yet . I'm staying at jurong east . Sorry i'm using
my pad to type this msg so have to keep it short .

[boliao7378]

Bro, its quite easy to set the wind in Phoenix simulator, it is under Weather and you can select the kind of wind you want. You can also set the speed and the direction of the wind.

Yes, its important for you to fly simulator with wind on because it's nearly impossible to fly plane in real world without any wind.

I'm a beginner too and just sharing my experiences, not trying to sound like and expert here. When I first fly using simulator I don't have problem flying the plane but when I actually do real flying, it's so difficult to control the plane due to wind. Was advise to activate wind in simulator and things improve a lot.

I also learn that you must invest in good transmitter. At first I bought this Hitec Analog transmitter and it's so so limited.

Some bro here advise me to set my transmitter to make my aileron and rudder (about 40 to 50%) move together to get a smoother turning.

So I invested in DX6i and set all those stuff (now learning more about expo and dual rate) and for once, I fly my plane without crashing!! even in windy day!!

Also remember to check for CG, very very important, this one beginner biggest mistake as we always forget to check for CG. I learn that the hard way too :0.

happy flying bro

Ok ,i'm a noob here with a phoenix2k (bro rommi has help me maiden it ) and building another phoenix1.3m courtesy of another bro in dh given it to me minus all electronic still trying to fix up . Both are gliders.

But main thing is i'm looking for pple to teach me how to fly it better esp when theres wind blowing . Rommi invited me to fly with them but as i'm working shift work . Most of my offdays are on weekdays like today and tomorrow . And i rely on public transport too . So am looking for someone who fly during the weekdays too to teach me . Rommi ask me to on the wind feature on the phoenix simulator but i can't seem to find it . Not to mention my pc is down just 3 days ago until now aso haven recover yet . I'm staying at jurong east . Sorry i'm using
my pad to type this msg so have to keep it short .