First plane, which way should I go

[tonytone]

Yes I know this question is asked frequently but I will ask it again.
After alot of research I have come up with 2 options that I can go for my first plane.

Option 1 - Buy a $150 RTF 3ch plane, 27Mhz radio (electrafun XP) which will be great to learn but when the time comes to upgrade, I'll have to replace everything eg Radio, palne, electornics.

Option 2 - Buy a ARF trainer with motor, and buy a 6ch radio (GWS) plus servos, recievers etc. Then when its time to upgrade, all I'll need is the plane and motor. But I am alittle worried about successfully installing the RX and servos.

I have a large field, 3 to 4 football size so there is plenty of room, and I will go to the local club as well.

What option should I go,

[Keith43221]

what are they?

[tonytone]

Sorry Keith I hit the save button before I was finished, both options are now in the oriiginal post

[Keith43221]

deff. go with #2.
Slow Stick RTF combo.

[tonytone]

Thanks for the reply Keith, I've done some research on it and it reads as an indoor plane, I will be flying it outdoor with "some" wind, is there any others you may suggest?

Has anyone flown the GWS slow stick, how did it go outdoors? did you need to upgrade to another plane quickly?

[Keith43221]

Oh boy, just do some searches here. It is the most popular plane EVER! it has been modified in just about every way possible. But yes, only fly it in no wind. This is the way your first flights should be anways. After you get past that stage, you fly in some wind.

[boltor]

Keith - Option 2.

If I had my time again, I would not go down the 'everything in a box' approach (including transmitter). I initially purchased an Aerobird Challenger, including a transmitter - this was not ideal as it was configured in Mode 1 (not the Mode 2 that I now fly - ie: rudder / elevator on left; airlerons / throttle on right). Also, it's electronics were not able to be moved to the next aircraft (6 weeks later!).

Don't worry about installing the gear - if the instructions aren't clear, there are lots of people on this forum that will always help.

So, if you know you are going to stay in the hobby, I would go for 'real' radio up front. That's just my thoughts - good luck with your choice.

btw, the other big thing I would do is make extensive use of a flight simulator such as FMS to help get your basic flying skills ok (particularly getting your orientation right).

[pldaniels]

Hey all --- yep, I've flown a SS, outdoors etc.

In my opinon, it's a great starting plane, slow, docile, incredibly resilliant. Best of all you can load it up with goodness knows how many other optional accessories. I'd suggest you make the Slowstick a little on the heavier side so that it copes with less than 'perfectly still' conditions to start with (large lipo or NiMH pack).

If you're planning on sticking with park-flying then the GWS TX/RX/servos will serve you fine.

Paul.

[woodsy]

Another vote for the SS, when i started in Electric i'd been flying glow for a couple of years and the slow stick taught me a lot about lecky flying, i still use it as a test bed because it's so docile, and can carry a wide range of motors, batteries, RX's etc.

[Mark in Aus]

If you decide on the radio for now and future you can then buy any cheap model like the Electrafun in spare parts. Will cost you around $40 then you can get the rest like motor ,speedy,packs and charger. You know, all the good stuff that you can pass from plane to plane. I put a few mates on to the Electrafun with their own radios and electrics and originally went that way myself. You can mod the Electrafun in lots of ways and make it as docile or as hot as you like from a stock can motor to a high performance brushless setup.
The EF parts are dirt cheap ,we've flown our EF's in 20knot winds. It's a blast.
And there are also a few other parkflyers that you can do this with also.


Well that's my 2cents.. :D



Mark

[nator_au]

HStore and Modelflight both have the Parkzone Slo-V for under $100.

A good option in my opinion, even if you cant easily use the components in another aircraft. (you can actually, but it must be v-tail, but servos and rx are not standard.)

Electrafun is also an option, and you are able to re-use all components in another aircraft. Do a search on here though for the throttle mod in the TX. Well worth it.

My Vote is for the Slo-V. Under one hundred bucks is a good way to see if you like flying. And if you decide to upgrade, you could just leave the slo-v as is and have 2 planes to take to the park! 2 flying is always better than 1.

Slo-V parts are about same cost as elecrafun parts as well.

Cheers.
Brett

p.s. I have ordered a Slo-V, for lazy park afternoons. :)

[tonytone]

Well thanks for all the replies, I went out a bought the Electrafun XP on Friday. Due to rain I wasn't able to fly it until Sunday. I am HOOKED!!!! It was alot harder than I thought it was going to be, it didn't help that there was some wind around.
The plane is still in one piece even after several crashes(+ 1 really bad nose dive), I can see the spare wing, rudder and tail being used in the not so distant future.
Will adding some weight help it in the wind? if so what should I use?

Thanks Tony

[mhale71]

oi, ive flown the electrafun XP...

i went to a caravan park last week and one of the guys there had on, i gotta say theyre a very nice build using proper recievers, ESC and servos, so you can upgrade the motor if you wish, it appears to come with a 4 channel radio, so you can probably put ailerons into it.

and how it flies?, you tosss it up, give it full throttle, get it up there and it will easily and calmly do laps at about 75% throttle.

and its VERY durable i found from crappy handlaunches, and bad landings, because i was flying in wind that most people wouldnt fly a heavy glow plane in, if you fly it into the wind it goes UP.. very quickly. it also comes with lots of spare parts.

dont touch GWS radio equipment.

mike

[tonytone]

mhale,

I am very happy with the purchase, handlaunches very easily, but landing at the moment due to lack of experience not so pretty, hopefully after work today there is little wind and I can crash I mean fly so more.
Re: GWS, I have heard good and bad experiences, I will probably give them a go as its at the right price and I'm poor.

Tony

[pldaniels]

Re GWS gear - I probably should give my input...

First up, yes, people have had some bad experiences with GWS receivers, this is because with the two smallest receivers they have (4ch pico and 6ch Naro) there isn't a lot of front-end discrimination or isolation; anyhow, a long/large thread on this topic was started in RCGroups and this is a couple of the primary points we came up with

1. Worn/broken servos are often the big culprit for inducing noise
2. physical proximity ESC's also produce a lot of noise that cause issues with the receiver
3. running the antenna near aluminium, metal or CF kills the reception ability

A couple of "Don'ts"

1. Don't use the R4P or R6N for anything beyond park flying or indoor
2. Don't use the R4P / R6N for glow-motors
3. Don't put the antenna near metal or carbon fiber

Be aware that there are more receivers than the R4P and R6N from GWS, there's also the 8ch 8MSL, 8MSL+ and the dual-conversion receivers. The "bulk" of the complaints you'll hear about are about the R4P and R6N.

I personally use the GWS R6N's in my DLG's and park flyers without any issues.

Just be aware that if you use the R4P or R6N you must be careful about your placement of the servo leads and ESC because they /are/ more sensitive to noise pickup than more expensive receivers. You can also eliminate a lot of this using things like the NoiseTrap that's often advertised here. I'll also be making/building filter plugins in the near future.

Hope that helps.

Regards.

[homemadepilot]

Yes I know this question is asked frequently but I will ask it again.
After alot of research I have come up with 2 options that I can go for my first plane.

Option 1 - Buy a $150 RTF 3ch plane, 27Mhz radio (electrafun XP) which will be great to learn but when the time comes to upgrade, I'll have to replace everything eg Radio, palne, electornics.

Option 2 - Buy a ARF trainer with motor, and buy a 6ch radio (GWS) plus servos, recievers etc. Then when its time to upgrade, all I'll need is the plane and motor. But I am alittle worried about successfully installing the RX and servos.

I have a large field, 3 to 4 football size so there is plenty of room, and I will go to the local club as well.

What option should I go,
right now go to raidentech.com NOW! realy realy realy cheap RTFs

[bidlynd]

right now go to raidentech.com NOW! realy realy realy cheap RTFs

But expensive when shipping to OZ.

[Smo0]

Being a beginner myself, I went with option 2.

The guy at the shop instructed when buying the ARF plane, "Do you want to crash a $90 plane excluding motor or do you want to crash a $200 plane excluding motor".

So I purchased a $89 plane excluding motor and a Spektrum DX7.

I'm having my first flight with an instructor this Sunday, can't wait.

Also, putting the aircraft to getting is half the fun.

Smo0

[kevinelp]

I bought a simulator (Phoenix) as my first plane :)

After a couple months, I bought a dx-7 and a multiplex twinstar II.

I found I could fly it first time, and never really looked back.

The twinstar is pretty robust, easy to repair, easy to fly, has no landing gear to break!

I'm now busy cranking up the rates, and trying to perfect my snap rolls, spins, loops, stall turns, etc...

Some links about the plane

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-IVjKiNVuk
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=413667
http://plawner.net/4/twinstar2/twinstar2r.html

And some fun, with a kit-bashed twinstar with variable pitch props!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqRLnjydvag

[sirAbe]

ok in my view this is the way to go.

If your not sure about starting in this hobby just yet go out and buy an electrafun not extrafun cause that is a low wing and has ailerons which are a bit harder(correct me if im wrong there).

But if you know for sure your sticking with this hobby then go option 2 for sure. if you dont like the slow stick as much maybe try to make a hig wing trainer such as a cessna or a pup.

just my $0.02

[sirAbe]

and what great scenery in the first movie there. great fields of rolling runways :p
or hand launch runways :confused: :confused: :confused:

[Martini101]

The EGO models cessna 182 is pretty easy to fly i find it's very stable in the air, it even comes with a simulator to install on your computer.

http://www.egomodels.com.au/products/cessna182.html

Otherwise you could probably go for a plane such as the Parkzone Slo - v which i hear is pretty good or the newer parkzone/kyosho cessna 210 (it's not available here yet as far as I know) which is a slowflyer 3 channel very small, I hear alot of positive reviews for this plane.

http://www.parkzone.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=PKZ3005

http://www.kyosho.com/eng/products/rc/detail.html?product_id=101476

[jimmy sparks]

Personally I'd get a Multiplex Easystar. Can't believe no-ones mentioed it yet. You can get it with or without the radio gear. It's cheap, made of very durable Elapor foam which can be just glued back together, and can be modified a heap of different ways. Easy and relaxing to fly.

I started with an Electrafun which was good, but i wish i had got an Easystar first.

You can even strap your digital camera to it.

Here is a thread with info. Over 6,000 messages and that's just from this year, so there's more than enough info on it.

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=618732

Good luck

cheers

Andrew