THE
RULES:
1- THERE IS NO CRASH-PROOF PLANE. Some are tougher
than others, but every plane will break if you hit something fast
enough or "wrong".
2- THERE ISN"T A PERFECT
BEGINNERS PLANE. There are many good trainers out there in various
price ranges. They all have good and bad points, advocates and
detractors. Your job is to find the best one for YOU.
3- YOU
WILL CRASH LEARNING TO FLY, IT WILL BREAK, AND YOU'LL HAVE TO REPAIR
IT. Period. Deal with it.
4- THERE ARE NO GUARANTEES THAT YOU
CAN OR WILL LEARN HOW TO FLY A R/C PLANE. It's like learning to ride
a bike- without training wheels. Most people can with practice and
patience.
5- THIS HOBBY IS NOT CHEAP. Warning: you may throw
some (or all) of your money right out out the window.
6- DO
YOUR RESEARCH HERE, the best source of knowledge on the net. Get the
plane that you think will provide YOU the best chance of success,
follow the instructions, and then do the Fly- Crash- Repair routine
over and over till you finally "get it".
7- IT'S
NOT THE PLANE'S FAULT. Every plane on the market will fly if it's
built right, the CG is right, it's trimmed right, and it's not flown
into anything.
8- THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS A SLOWFLYER THAT
WILL HANDLE WIND. Get real.
9- YOU THINK WE GO THROUGH ALL
THIS FOR THE FUN OF IT? You're darn right we do!!!
NEWBIES
RULES FOR HELICOPTERS
1- GETTING INTO HELICOPTERS REQUIRES A
MAJOR EXPENSE. We’re not talking about a $120 2-channel trainer
that comes with everything in a box. We’re talking about
spending enough to put a down payment on a nice car just to get an
entry-level copter going. If you get one, forget sending the kids to
college.
2- LEARNING TO “FLY” HELICOPTERS IS HARD
(VERY HARD). How hard? Take a beach ball and hold it between your
hands. Have a buddy put a Wiffle ball in top. Keep the Wiffle ball on
top of the beach ball for 15 minutes straight, while walking around.
That’s just practice for the Real Test. The Real Test is to do
the above with a remote-controlled beach ball.
3- HELICOPTERS
DON’T “FLY”. They have no wings, etc. They have a big
propeller sticking out the top. Basically, they go from place to
place by “hanging on the prop”. This is “Really
Advanced Flying” for plane guys, but “Ultra Basic Flying”
for chopper guys.
4- HELICOPTERS REQUIRE CONSTANT TUNING.
They won’t “fly” well unless they’re balanced.
Changing ANYTHING on it (ie, the battery) will unbalance it and it
will require re-balancing.
5- THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A
CRASH-PROOF HELICOPTER. They are very light, powerful, and flimsy.
The first thing you must learn is to “hover”, or hang on
the prop without the torque-roll. This usually takes hours and hours
of practice. In the meantime, you are crashing, repairing, replacing
parts, and generally beating the poor thing to a pulp.
6-
MOST CRASHES COST MONEY. See above. When you crash, there’s a
99% chance something will break. Those “somethings” cost a
lot of money. To get an idea, while doing the Real Test above, you
have to give your buddy $2-$30 (his choice) every time the Wiffle
ball falls off.
7- YOU WILL NEED TRAINING GEAR. This is extra
wide landing gear you attach to your normal landing gear. They reduce
the chance of crashing while learning from 99% down to 95%. (NOTE:
after removing the training gear the chopper will act completely
different and you’ll have to relearn how to fly all over again.)
8- THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A RTF HELICOPTER. They are way
too complicated to be put together by Swiss watchmakers, much less
any foreign workers. The only way the manufacturers can sell these
contraptions at a reasonable cost is to let you do it. Lotza luck…
9- MOST BEGINNERS START OFF WITH A MICRO HELICOPTER because
they only cost an arm and a leg instead of your first-born male. They
justify this by saying that they can learn to fly in the livingroom
all the time, like when it's bad outside. They imagine themselves
learning to hover in it's vast expanse, and later doing beautiful
takeoffs and landings back and forth between the dining room table
and coffee table.
Her perception is much closer to reality: a
totally out-of-control flying miniature buzz saw that's loose in a
confined space that contains her precious furniture, glass, knick
kacks, children, pets, and lamps!
10- YOU WILL BE CONSIDERED
A NUT. Only you will consider it a Big Deal that you can Hover.
Nobody will be impressed until you can do Forward Flight, which takes
many, many more hours of practice, crashes, repairs, parts
replacement, and hiking until you eventually learn the next two
steps: Stopping and Turning. However, you won't be considered a GOD,
revered among us radio control mortals until you can finally fly
Inverted (otherwise know as "showing off"). Flying Inverted
serves absolutely no useful purpose, but it does atract weird chicks
in droves.
