Hi all, I've been lurking for a couple days now and decide I may as well go
ahead and post my question, most of you seem reasonably open-minded and
helpful =)

I'm rather new to R/C, I'll admit. I used to fly gliders about 5 years back,
but never got too fully into it - about all I flew was a 2-meter Wanderer,
and it lasted through several not-so-great wrecks =)

Anyhow, I'm fully interested in getting back into R/C, but I'm probably
going to have to start somewhat from scratch. The area I now live in has
only one club near (I know must of you belong to clubs and swear by them)
but it is not very accessible to me, as I have no personal transportation, I
heavily rely on public transit, which doesn't service that club's area

I do, however, have access to a friend's place with a nice garage for
building space, and several wide-open pastures that would make for great
flying areas. Said friend is also interested in R/C and has secured one
pasture that we can clear of blackberries and use as a field, unfortunately
it's got a rather nasty slope to it and I doubt it'd be good for landing
anything but a glider. There is also a gravel drive leading up to the ranch
houses that might be useable for semi-rough landings, and there may be
enough grass beside it for not-so-rough landings. Provided I could walk far
enough, I could probably also land it on the paved drive that leads up to
the gravel... I seriously think there's enough room to work out some sort of
flying-strip arrangement.

I'd like to get into powered airplanes, and with my limited budget I believe
I should probably start with electric. (Other decisions helped me reach this
decision as well, considering they appear to have less to worry about for a
beginner, and are generally easier to get all the details sorted out)

Mainly what I'm asking for is any sort of helpful advice on entry-level
cheap electric (ARF probably) planes, equipment (I still have my old
4-channel futaba which might be salvageable) and, most importantly,
tips/suggestions/direction on training myself to fly, with my little bit of
glider experience which I'm sure will come back to help me once I start
seriously taking a stab at things -- I know most of you are advocates of
learning from a real trainer at a club field, but like I said, that's
unfortunately not within my access range. Provided the plane's a little on
the sturdy side (another reason for choosing electric, it sounds like they
crash with less damage?) I'm not afraid of a few unplanned landings, and the
area around the ranch has very few breakables, so I'm not worried about
property damage.

I'm also aware of the advantages to a newbie between ARF and Kit -- I'm not
against building a kit, and do have the space to do so in the garage, so if
you feel there's a better kit trainer than ARF trainer, I can do that too =)
(Heck I'm even willing to give plans a shot - plans would allow me to space
the expense out easier, rather than saving up and buying everything at once)

Anyways, any insight on a good electric trainer (preferably not too hefty on
the pocketbook) and maybe some books or something that'll help me teach
myself, I'd greatly appreciate! Thanks a lot in advance, and I'm very sorry
about the long post I tend to be somewhat verbose =)

-- Ray

Simulator & Electric Park Flyer Links
http://www.rcsites.net/aeropal/

In article <hlhSa.31784$EZ2.28494@nwrddc01.gnilink.net>,
Rayanth Drygu <rayanth@silverlight.org> wrote:

| pasture that we can clear of blackberries and use as a field, unfortunately
| it's got a rather nasty slope to it and I doubt it'd be good for landing
| anything but a glider.

Depending on how large of a slope it is, it might be just perfect for
slope flying! Which is a lot of fun, and the flying wings that are
very popular for slope flying are great for learning to fly -- they're
almost indestructable.

I suspect that it's not a large enough slope, or you'd have called it
a hill, but maybe ...

--
Doug McLaren, dougmc@frenzy.com
We must know, we will know. -- David Hilbert

Thanks for the link, aeropal -- it confirms a sugestion that was made to me
via email response to my original post

Thanks also to all other suggestions made... It looks like i'll end up going
with a Slow Stick ... the reviews i've read on it seem to rather strongly
suggest that, while it needs a little work, overall it should make a nice
gentle trainer that'll suit exactly what i've got available to me

I'm a little concerned about wind though - they don't suggest flying it
anything over 5mph. I'll be going to the proposed flying site over the next
week and will get a better feel for what kind of wind the place sees, to
make sure it's gonna be okay.

The low price tag makes me very comfortable, particularly if i can get some
sort of arrangement for the servos. I may post more question slater about
older futaba radios with new servos, possibly other brands, to go micro and
lighter or something, we'll see... i need to dig out the old 4-chan and see
what it actually is first =)


"aeropal" <rcaeropal@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:6c8136a0.0307191845.17e120ca@posting.google.c om...
> Simulator & Electric Park Flyer Links
> http://www.rcsites.net/aeropal/

Rayanth Drygu wrote:

> Thanks for the link, aeropal -- it confirms a sugestion that was made to me
> via email response to my original post
>
> Thanks also to all other suggestions made... It looks like i'll end up going
> with a Slow Stick ... the reviews i've read on it seem to rather strongly
> suggest that, while it needs a little work, overall it should make a nice
> gentle trainer that'll suit exactly what i've got available to me
>
> I'm a little concerned about wind though - they don't suggest flying it
> anything over 5mph. I'll be going to the proposed flying site over the next
> week and will get a better feel for what kind of wind the place sees, to
> make sure it's gonna be okay.


I woudl say that slow flyres despite the lack of wind capability, have
several major advantages.

(i) They are so light, espceially with Li-Poly batteries, that they
don't dmage themselves especailly if flown over long grass.

(ii) Mostly they will fly almost hands off, so letting go of the sticks
at reasonable altitude is a not bad way to get out of a mess.

(iii) things happen slow enough so that you have time to think which way
to push the sticks.

(iv) They are cheap enough airframe wise for you to wreck a few and not
have it hurt too much. Also they are ugly enough for you not to care.

After you have mastered one of these, the next step is to go for more
power - Twinstars are a good step up. AILERONS (gasp) and SPEED (double
gasp!)

Beyond that its down to inclinations.




>
> The low price tag makes me very comfortable, particularly if i can get some
> sort of arrangement for the servos. I may post more question slater about
> older futaba radios with new servos, possibly other brands, to go micro and
> lighter or something, we'll see... i need to dig out the old 4-chan and see
> what it actually is first =)
>
>
> "aeropal" <rcaeropal@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:6c8136a0.0307191845.17e120ca@posting.google.c om...
>
>>Simulator & Electric Park Flyer Links
>>http://www.rcsites.net/aeropal/
>>
>
>