Dear all fellow modelers,

I have just discovered your site here for discussing and sharing information about the electric flight hobby.

I am pretty much green to the e-flight hobby, a rookie you might say. I have spent the better part of my spare time the last twelve years in electric R\C cars. I swapped hobbies after the only track near me closed. E-flight seemed to be the way to go.

I have been doing it now for about 5 months. I have two planes, one a simple Dragonfly trainer, and the other an Impress. I was hoping to purchase a SP400 warbird as my next plane. I have searched the internet, forums (like yours), and found many different options. One in particular that I find a lot of discussion on are Jim Ryan's aircraft. I also have found some at Mentornet & Sky Hooks.

I would like any feedback/opinions, personal experiences, anything that might help me make an informed decision.

I appriciate all the future help in advance

welcome to e zone, the ryan warbirds are very nice kits to build.
they fly very nice. if you are "very proficient" with the impress then you should be ok ......gregg

Just remember that yes these planes are VERY nice but they must fly at a good pace.Nothing like a trainer.Also agree 100% with gregg you must be VERY PROFICIENT pilot!!And no i do not qualifi yet either to fly one of these planes.stefanP

Ghost rider rquesting a fly by.........

I have to agree with the other comments. I think my kits are best suited to a builder/flyer with a little more experience. On the construction side, while there are no particularly complex or difficult steps, the plans do presume a certain amount of past experience on the part of the builder.

As for flying, they have no real vices, but they're relatively fast aileron machines; if you crash them, they break.

If you can handle a relatively fast small aileron machine like the Twister, MiniStreak, etc, you should have no problem flying these warbirds. If I were in your position, I would recommend one of these as an interim step between the Impress and my warbirds.

Jim

http://home.fuse.net/ryan

Thank you all so far who have replied to my thread so far.

So as far as an interim faster aileron plane to be "proficient" at, you had mentioned "twister". What are your recomendations for such a plane and where can I find them?

Another slightly off topic question I have come up short answering is where can I find published material to help me learn about motors, props, batts, and the relation to each other technical wise? Any help on this would also be greatly appriciated.

Once again thank you all for your help so far and for all the future knowledge I hope to obtain.

Scincerely:
Aaron Stewart
"impresspilot1"

Originally posted by impresspilot1
Thank you all so far who have replied to my thread so far.

So as far as an interim faster aileron plane to be "proficient" at, you had mentioned "twister". What are your recomendations for such a plane and where can I find them?

Another slightly off topic question I have come up short answering is where can I find published material to help me learn about motors, props, batts, and the relation to each other technical wise? Any help on this would also be greatly appriciated.

Once again thank you all for your help so far and for all the future knowledge I hope to obtain.

Scincerely:
Aaron Stewart
"impresspilot1"

you can find the twister here:
http://members.aol.com/rcav/page3.htm

if you attend the mwe in 2 weeks, you could probably see a twister or two there. i'll have a ryan warbird there as well........gregg

After flying a Pico Jet Combat for 2 months I got myself a Twister. It was a very big step for me to take all at once. The Twister is quite fast and small compaired to what I had been flying. I stuffed the Twister a # of times but they are suprisingly strong. I still fly my Twister to this day and love it, though it is not pretty at all anymore . I think the Twister was a great airframe to learn on and if you can fly it you can fly almost anything. I have since gotten myself a F5B plane and a E3D and, except for a electronic failure, I have not really been crashing. Jim's Warbirds look great and one of these days I will have to pick up the Bear Cat, and I have to say the the P-47 looks great as well. Good Luck.

Cheers,
Jim

Originally posted by impresspilot1
Another slightly off topic question I have come up short answering is where can I find published material to help me learn about motors, props, batts, and the relation to each other technical wise? Any help on this would also be greatly appriciated.

It's worth starting with the FAQ on this site (link at top of page). Lots of good information there. For power systems specifically, you should also read Jim Bourke's articles "Understanding Electric Power Systems". Fairly technical but excellent information. Just do a search from the main page.

The manual/help files for Motocalc and Electricalc are IMO also well worth reading. Both are online though it's also worth getting at least one of the programs.

http://www.motocalc.com/motocalc.htm
http://www.slkelectronics.com/help/help.htm

Steve