Just spent a nice time reading Charles River RC's 'Getting Started' pages. See http://www.charlesriverrc.org/getstart_yourfirstmodel.htm All three texts (gas, electric and glider) are well written, but I do miss a few items in the part about electrics and gliders, and not least the total silence about electric EPP planes and EPP flying wings. And I personally feel that the event of the Zagi has resulted in more successful beginners than any other plane the last few years, and not least now with the event of the self-propelled Zagi 400 (Nope, I don't use one, don't own one, but have built and owned various of other Zagis). Secondly, the best beginner's plane isn't ever a Gentle Lady, unless your flying field have very short grass, as a in-grass landing very easily result in a ripped-off stabilisator. Not too fun to travel ten miles to have your stabilisator ripped off after a three minute flight! A frank beginner wrote recently (in RCSE) that for every hour of flying he had at least three hours of repair with his Gentle Lady, and that guy did have access to a good flying field! Pretty close to ideal beginner's plane is the DAW S1-26 HLG. In an emergency it can be used as a HLG on a flat field, excellently it can be used as a small normal glider (perfect on a high-start and I have even winched mine!), or as a sloper, or back-yard plane. If built lightly it can be equipped with an electric 400 motor, and be used as a powered glider - not scale, but who cares? And in sharp contrast it is quite fast and thus behaves like most modern gliders and can therefore be flown in windy conditions, where any Gentle Lady would have to be left at home! What prompted me to write originally was the lack of price estimates for electric models and gliders. A Hitec 3 SS is perfect for most simple gliders and also for many electric models, even for many IC-powered gliders, so $300 is a fair guess for the cheapest electric model, including radio, batteries and chargers. For conventional gliders, say a GL, with all sundries (covering, et cetera), plus a cheap radio, is about $200 (a Zagi is roughly the same), while a IC-powered GL would fetch about $350 (model, radio, batteries, starter, ...). So I think the choice often is governed by two factors: The salesman, who wants to sell the maximum amount of stuff, and the buyer's purse. If all works well, the buyer ends up with a good plane with a cheap radio, say Zagi + Hitec 3 SS, but very often ends up with a 40-size ARF with a computer radio, that before the beginner has soloed under controlled circumstances have will have been reduced to rubble! Thank the powers above that my third start into this hobby (about ten years after the second try) coincided with the foamies revolution! I bought a wooden glider kit first, but then a Zagi LE landed in my lap - haven't looked back since then! And I have just returned to wooden glider kits, as they agree with good flying and landing ability :-)! Tord, Sweden -- If reply difficulties - use [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tord S. Eriksson, Ovralidsg.25:5, S-422 47 Hisings Backa, Sweden RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
