On Thu, May 19, 2005 at 06:26:13PM -0400, Michael Zusi wrote: | Excuse me if I am not following protocol. I am venturing into a new | listserve.
The usual protocol is to watch the list for a while before you post, but there's nothing wrong with your post ... | I am venturing into r/c flying. I'm a Navy pilot. Fly privately, | am a tow pilot and have soloed a glider. The big stuff is great but | I would love to learn to fly a r/c glider among the crows in my | backyard. Any suggestions? The big one is that while you already know how to fly, flying an R/C plane is different. Sure, they fly on the same principles, but how you perceive it is totally different. Stories of experienced full scale pilots trying R/C flying on their own and crashing their planes in 10 seconds are not rare at all. It's not that they can't fly, it's just that it's ... different, and while you're up there is not the time to figure out how it's different and figure out how to correct for it. Ideally, you'll find somebody nearby who's familiar with R/C planes who can show you the ropes. A few minutes of assistance from somebody in person can save you hours and hours of frustration, not to mention lots of money. | I've thought of the rtf products as an introduction but then I may | be stuck with tx and receivers that aren't compatible with more | advanced aircraft. Well, I'll assume you'll avoid the `toys' where everything is completely ready to go -- things like you'll get at Wal-Mart, or even the somewhat better planes like the Firebirds and others. Once you get into the `serious' R/C planes, you'll find that the receivers and servos and stuff are all seperate from the plane and generally interchangable (though smaller planes generally require smaller gear.) This, probably more than anything else, differentiates the `toy' RC planes from the serious ones. More fancy planes generally use more channels. You can have a very enjoyable glider with 2 channels, but a serious plane might use 7 or even more. If you get a computer radio with at least 7 channels (like the Hitec Eclipse, Futaba 7c or 9c, or many others), you'll probably find that this one transmitter can control lots of planes and you're not likely to outgrow it for a while. It'll cost more, however ... | flights with launch but also want to park fly in my backyard. Any | suggestions on how to proceed? There seems to be an R/C club in your city -- http://www.frederickmodelaircraftclub.org/. Go to their field, watch them fly, talk to them. Looks like they do powered planes rather than gliders, but they'll still be a good resource. And who knows -- maybe you'll like the glow planes :) As for park fliers, I'm pretty fond of my Slow Stick, but there's lots and lots to choose from. -- Doug McLaren, [EMAIL PROTECTED] internet, eh? I hear they have that on computers now. RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off. Email sent from web based email such as Hotmail and AOL are generally NOT in text format
