I started about 4-5 months ago. My brother had just started with his first plane. ( A Pico Cub or one like it )
He came over to my house and showed me a few video clips on the internet of some guys flying Zagi's.
I was hooked from that moment and had one (Zagi 400x) built by the next week.
I am self taught but must say the 1-2 hours spent on the simulator made all the difference.
Now I have a Zagi, Wingo, EZ400G, Viper ( a hotliner\sailplane ), Pro Jeti, and am building a Kwik-E.

This is just too much FUN!!!

Bill Sampson

Flew my first e-plane, also my first RC plane, over 20 years ago...back in 79 or 80 when i was still in high school. Yes e-planes existed back then. I remember seeing a Tower's RCM ad for a foam Kraft Cessna Cardinal for $50 or $60 with a batt pack and 15 min charger. (Back in those days, Tower's seemed to be less"mainstream" than they are now, and the were unbelievable deals from time to time). The plane had wingspan of about 36" or so with a 05 type of motor. The batt pack was made up of 6 cells of roughly 1/2 C size. The plane called for a 2 channel radio- just a regular size radio . There's an on/off toggle swich for the motor outside the fuse. The idea was to turn on the motor and fly till you run low on power. Believe it or not, the plane actually flew OK. Hand launching was no problem. It even took off from short grass. Only problem was I never had that much air time before it disintegrated to pieces and beyond repair. There were other e-planes around that time. One that i remember is the cox sportavia. I never heard anything about it. Anyway, as other high school and college matters got in the way, I never got back to RC again after that until the late 80's with the Electra. I will always have fond memories of my first rc plane, an e-plane much less. There have been many other since then that go faster, climb steeper, and fly better, but it's hard to forget the first experience with the Kraft Cardinal...it was short but sweet!

I've been flying R/C for a month today !

I used to fly F/F gliders and some C/L in my youth (I'm now 38) and I always wanted an R/C plane but the costs were too high for a boy with a paper round.

About 5 weeks ago, I had a quick go on a friends Easy Pigeon and I instantly decided to get my own plane.

I bought a TwinStar on the Wednesday, flew it on Saturday morning (work gets in the way sometimes?). I now have 30 flights on it.

Looking to get a TwinJet for Christmas....

Adam

I was also. But now I'm experimenting with glow. I guess that's backwards?

Frank

I was a real virgin when I started flying full scale in high school.

And not only was I an RC virgin when I started Electric 5 years ago, I had never even seen a RC plane fly.

I'm still a gas/glow virgin, but before I get too old to perform I hope to taint my RC purity, someday coming home with oily fingers and fumes on my clothes.

-Steve

Frank you can dig up the oldest threads! Did you notice the first post date? Not everybody was focused on NYC on 9/11 apparently. Ghosts from the past...
V. - who's never flown a glow RC. ...yet.

Oldies but goodies my friend. I did notice the date, very interesting wasn't it?

Frank

My son gave me a HZ Super Cub for my 70th birthday April 2007. Last thing i would have ask for.Thought. Better show willing. So took it out and tried and tried. I've had to paint it as it's more glue than foam, but i love it. Now i've got a Twinstar 11 as well and I've become a tree watcher ( for the wind ) Just wish i had got into this earlier then i would have time to get good at it. As it is, well i just enjoy it.
Peter

First successful flights were in the early 60s with a Debolt Trainer, throttle and rudder only, on reeds with an OS .09 Pet for power. No instructors back then, do it yourselfers.

Gord

R/C Virgin? No way. Electric R/C Cars (1985), then trucks, then Nitro trucks....then electric planes, then heli. No plans to go to nitro planes or helis.

Let's see....R/C glow power first flight in 1969...first electric R/C aircraft in about 1976 or so....so, I was not an R/C virgin when I started electric...

If you think electric R/C was not getting any respect a few years back, you should have been flying it in the 1970s....

I was an RC Plane virgin when I first tried electric. My first RC flght was with an electric plane in 1989. (Goldberg Mirage I built myself with 3 standard servos, 550mah rx battery, 1200mah 6 cell nicad and yes it flew for many years) Had electric RC Cars in 82 or 83. I've had glow planes since then and I've shifted atleast twice from an all e-flyer to both, to all glow to back to all electric. Right now I'm all electric again but who knows. I might try glow again sometime.

My first time at the sticks was as a 5 year old kid when I held the transmitter which was guiding a 12 foot span schweizer. Dont touch the sticks was the command. Sorry Dad. I watched him build it too.

My next time at the sticks, I was an adult trying out a Glo powered Sig Seniorita. That was so easy to fly, but landing was not. I dorked it into a fence, confusing left and right. It got repaired.

A few years later, I took that same Seniorita into the backyard, unassisted. I managed to get it started with a chicken stick. I hand launched it. Up she went, around and around the sky. Simple. Then I did a loop. She leveled out and I burned the excess airspeed with a banked turn or two. Suddenly, the battery fell out that hole in the fuselage I chose to ignore. Signal lost, throttle at 3/4 and a 6 inch hole in the nieghbor's yard was the result.

A few years after that, I tried an electric of my own design. It failed and I finally had success with the next design.

I raced r/c cars for about 3yrs then got into flying with an Avistar trainer . So no. I did not start with electric planes.

When I was a boyscout, there was a particular branch of scouting called "Aeroscouts". Really into modelflight and stuff. First encounter was a glow engine, steered by cable and all it could do is fly circles (you know what I mean).

About a year ago (approx 20 years from my aeroscout days) I got me my first own plane, an Art Tech Pitts...

Here in Holland you have to get a permit to fly with combustion engines. Since there is no combustion in an electric plane, everyone can fly one! So that's the reason why I decided to go electric, I think I'll never do combustion again