Redpilot

Helpful advice and useful discussion without being patronising. Thanks.

jester_s1

That was the whole purpose, Redpilot. Thanks for the encouragement.

karolh

Jester s1,
It's been quite a while since I enjoyed reading a thread as much as I have done this one. An excellent piece and very well written.

jester_s1

Thank you, karolh. I had a good time making it and enjoyed others' contributions too.

tomy2017

well writing that help me a lot.thanks

jester_s1

I'm glad to see this thread still being productive. It's never been easier to get started in this amazing hobby than it is now. Every manufacturer makes a good beginner's plane, and the rest of the equipment has never been more reliable with more features and more options than today.

HeidyD

Very interesting tips are written here. Thanks, guys!

bisco

i just ordered an aeroscout bnf, and dx6 tx. been learning on a 20" sport cub on my own due to covid. it is very difficult for my old eyes to see the orientation of the little sport cub, and i'm hoping the aeroscout will be easier to see, as well as more stable.

jester_s1

It should fly a big slower and will probably be more stable. Being so much bigger than your Sport Cub, it will definitely be easier to see. Those tiny planes are so not for beginners.

bisco

thank you, i hope so!

i'm going to take my time setting it up properly. i got the bnf with a dx6, big learning curve for me!

SIX GUNS

all of you young guys out there need to wait till after you get your driver lic. and first car then wait till after your first girl friend fling then after you get that out of your system then your ready for a nice trainer to get into the hobby I've watched it so many times guys get a trainer fly it a couple times then it goes into the corner to sit and passable to never be touched again
but if your over that stage in your life LOL,
get something like a sig cadet SR. with a big wing that you can do so many things with like put it on floats or if you live in the north fridged parts of the U.S.A. ski's are a fun thing
either way getting into flying is a lot of fun I my self have been training guys to fly for 30yrs. and i still get a kick out of watching guys face light up when they do their first solo
and what ever you do JOIN A CLUB !!!!!! , you will be glad you did just remember your first plane has a crash date inside of every one don't be afraid of crashing think of it as a crash learning experience it can be rebuilt Remember the crash dummies its interesting to see what survived and what didn't kind of like a crash test
and get your next plane ready to go and have fun

VINCENT AERIAL

yes, find a reliable guy to teach will help beginer to save a lot of time & money.

J330

My Feedback: (3)

SIG Kadet Sr is no longer made, or available, that's ancient history thanks to foam BNF taking over the hobby. SIG kits and ARF's haven't been for sale in over a year now.
I started flying when I was 9 years old, building when I was 11 years old. They can get a trainer from Balsa USA. $290 is a tad pricey, but it's made to be easy. Balsa flies better. https://balsausa.com/products/student-trainer

Propworn

My Feedback: (3)

Any of the Telemaster kits are probably the best available at the moment. If you like big here is your plane. https://carolinacustomkits.com/shop/...ior-telemaster

LLRCFlyer

What makes a good trainer? Answer: A good instructor. The right way to learn to fly RC is to find a good instructor and actually use a buddy box controller. Everything else is secondary. The purpose of the whole trainer thing is to teach a beginner how to fly without incurring serious model destruction during the process. There is no perfect trainer airplane. However, some (including the Sig Kadet, Goldberg Eaglet 50 or Eagle 63) are significantly better for training than others. But even these great trainers could not guarantee a beginner could learn to fly by themselves. 40 years ago when these kits were popular, most of the folks stepping into RC had already developed sufficient building skills through building control line or free flight models. Therefore, building an RC trainer was well within their skill set and the Kadet or Eagle were viable options. Not so today. Many beginners today have spent too much time playing video games and never acquired the necessary shop skills to build a balsa model. These folks are now at the mercy of the Ready to Fly (Crash) model manufacturers. There are some modern RTF foam aircraft that can be used successfully to teach a student how to fly. These pretty much have the same characteristics as previously mentioned in this string on basic trainers, i.e. wingspan greater than 40 inches, wing loadings less than 20 ounces per square foot, tricycle landing gear, well behaved at low speed, gentle stall characteristics, stable, moderate power loading, not particularly fast, mellow control responses and normally have electric motors for better reliability than glow engines. A student can learn to fly on any of the previously described models if he/she will just find a good instructor and use a buddy box. A couple of the more popular training aircraft that work well include the Eflite Apprentice and the HobbyZone AeroScout S2 RTF models. These come equipped with a Spektrum AS3X (Assisted Stability 3 Axis) receiver with selectable SAFE mode to initially limit the amount of pitch and bank the model can achieve and include a panic switch to return the model to upright flight. These modern features can artificially provide the stability found in the older trainers. The RTF model versions come with a Spektrum DXs entry level transmitter and only costs $20 more than the Bind and Fly version. Although the DXs transmitter is devoid of most features that the student will want in the future, for the additional $20, the DXs transmitter makes a very good buddy box to link up with the instructor's wireless trainer capable master transmitter. (Or the student can go ahead and buy the Spektrum NX6 or NX8 transmitter (that they will need later) and bind the DXs transmitter as a buddy box to the NX "master" instructor transmitter.

bisco

Agreed. I’ve developed so many bad habits learning myself during Covid

Propworn

My Feedback: (3)

Join a club and find out the trainer the instructors have the most success with. That goes for the radio as well. Second, if you're lucky, you might find a used setup that could save you a bundle of money. Actually get you into a good-sized trainer for the price of the small foam ones.

J330

My Feedback: (3)

That's cool, glad to see one can still be purchased. I thought these died out back in the Hobby Lobby / Hobby Express era some 15 years ago. 96" wingspan is a challenge for most minivans and SUV's though for transport, and even storing in the garage.
https://carolinacustomkits.com/shop/.../telemaster-54 Cheaper, faster to build, and transport. Cool he makes these from the mini to the 12 footer.

Isn't the current market for offering RC pilots instant gratification, and not RC modeling? As another member stated, not many build kits anymore.
Too bad he isn't in FL, I have two Telemaster 40's (one glow, one electric) and a SIG Seniorita with a 4 stroke .52 on it. Trainers are the last thing to go. They're cheap. Try Facebook. Lots of used airplanes listed there.

The whole club trainer idea may still exist and that's great, but every student is going to crash. What better way to cool down their nerves with a $100 ready to fly used trainer airplane, rather than the anguish of losing $300-$500 with the investment of time, thinking that new model is going to be something permanently part of their hangar? As soon as they're flying solo, most want to graduate into a low wing trainer next, always pushing back the guys who want warbirds and Piper Cubs for their second airplane...

sport10

I learned to fly on a .40 size Superstar trainer by Hobbico I think. It was an ARF model and moderately priced. It was powered by an OS .40 LA motor. A lot of the prices today are double what we paid to get into the hobby. This holds back a lot of people IMO.

bisco

A lot of clubs today use the Aeroscout as a trainer.
it is an easy slow flyer, but with enough performance to graduate to medium and high skill allowing serious aerobatics

LLRCFlyer

Bisco is spot on. I think the AeroScout is the best trainer I have encountered in my 57 years of flying RC. Despite its small motor and propeller, it will easily take off from a grass runway, immediately roll inverted and then push up in a half outside loop to level flight. It will climb in knife edge flight. It will fly the entire Novice pattern set of maneuvers, but with the rates turned down, it is still gentle and forgiving. It glides well with a relatively low sink rate and provides long flight times. With a 3S-2200 mah battery, I get 8 minutes of spirited sport flying, 10-12 minutes of 40% throttle training, and when attempting a max duration flight with some decent thermals, I once got 26 minutes and 13 seconds of flight time and landed with 15% remaining in the battery. It handles wind and gusts exceptionally well with its AS3X receiver. I flew mine yesterday in winds that were listed as variable at 12 knots gusting to 22 knots (25 mph) according to the local airport automated weather observation system (AWOS). It taxied down wind and turned around with ease in that gusty wind that would tip over an Apprentice. I bought mine in October 2023 to train students at my club. I use the DXs transmitter that came with the plane as a buddy box for training. It now has over 400 flights and about 55 hours of flight time with multiple students, never crashed, still running the original propeller and it looks like new. Its the plane I grab to fly when the wind picks up and I don't want to risk my EDF jets and large gassers. Best $200 I've spent in years. Several of the local experienced fliers are buying them for sport flying, racing and combat just because they fly so well and are comparatively cheap. Its looks are quite deceiving (as Fred Sanford would say, the design constitutes a case of premediated ugly with intent to commit blindness), but it flies exceptionally well, especially as a trainer. Even as great as the Sig Kadet, Goldberg Falcon 56 and Eagle were as trainers, I must admit the AeroScout plus an instructor, a buddy box and some time on a flight simulator is the best way I know of to learn to fly without destroying an airplane.