JamesonOKC
Member
4 Months In: a newbie’s perspective on starting in the hobby.
I decided to dive into the RC hobby about 4 months ago. I have learned a lot and have a lot to learn. I wanted to write a quick post about my experience so far and a few tips and tricks I have learned along the way.
First of all this is my first post to the Flite Test forums and I am excited to join the community. I stumbled upon Flite Tests YouTube channel about 6 months ago. About 4 months ago after watching 100’s of FT videos I decided to dive in head first. I found an ad on craigslist for a sweet mini Hawker Hurricane for $60 with battery. After I bought the plane I waited for my Flysky I6 transmitter to come in from Amazon and practiced on RC Desk simulator with a PS4 controller. Finally after a couple of days of practice I plugged in all my electronics and went to the park behind my house. I did a simple preflight check and threw my plane into the air. To my surprise I was able to keep it up for about 10-15 seconds before pile driving it into ground. After about 4 more days of attempted flying with no success my Hurricane was not airworthy any more.
I then decided to order a powerpack and the mini warbird pack from FT. I loved building the planes and found the build videos amazingly helpful. After destroying both the Mustang and the Corsair in a short amount of time, I decided that the 2 FT Joshes probably knew what they were talking about in their beginner series on how to pick a plane. I smartened up and downloaded the plans for the FT Tiny Trainer. I learned a lot from my first scratch build and this was the first plane I had success flying with. Since then I bought a Darafly Tundra, scratch built an FT Sportster, FT Scout, and made an extended version of the FT Tiny Trainer I use as a powered guilder. I have recently bought a Mobius action camera and have been taking arial videos. This hobby has been very gratifying and I have really enjoyed it even with the steep learning curve.
I wanted to help others that are getting into the hobby with a couple of tips that I have found. I also have some questions for you experts that I have had trouble finding answers for.
Newbie Tips and Tricks:
1. Take your propeller off when setting up anything on your plane.(Propellers hurt)
2. When you cut foam board put your ruler on the part of the foam that will be the plane. That way if your razor slides off track it just goes into spare foam because your ruler is protecting your model.
3. Make the foam work for you. I found myself trying to cut at weird angles instead of just turning the foam board to make it easy on myself. This will make your lines come out much more consistent.
4. Electronics need ventilation. I have blown up 2 ESC’s now because they were not properly cooled. Make sure you cut a couple of holes to get airflow over ESC’s and other electronics. Foam is a great insulator and these things get HOT.
5. Touch up on your plane. Don’t be afraid to add access points in the fuselage if you need them or trim down the area around the control surfaces to make them move easier. These foam board plane are very resilient.
6. Paint after your maiden flight. I made the mistake of spending hours on a paint job for the mini Mustang before I flew it and if it flew so terribly all that work was destroyed in the first 2 or 3 throws.
7. Study your plane’s stall characteristics. This seems to be something I did not pick up until I started stalling my planes on purpose. When you watch a video on stalls they use a lot of language that a new pilot might not understand. My advice is to take your plane up very high and stall it intentionally to see how it handles a stall and it will also give you a feel of where the stall threshold is.
8. Start bleeding off speed and elevation early when you are approaching for landing. It is much easier to add a little throttle if you are coming in short than it is to safely drop speed or elevation quickly. I have overshot a few landing strips because of this. Also do not be afraid to bail on a landing and make another pass.
9. Have a real preflight checklist. There are many things that have resulted in destruction of one of my planes and most of them could have been prevented with a better preflight checklist. There are many great resources for checklists on Flite Test but I would like to add one thing to it, wear your sunglasses. I have lost multiple planes into the sun because I had no sunglasses on.
Newbie Questions
1. What are the signs that I am swinging a prop that is too big? Will it just blow the motor ESC? What about signs that I can go up in prop size?
2. CW and CCW props, motors and prop adapters. I want to make a dual motor plane for my next project and want to have opposite spinning props. I can not find prop collets that have a CCW thread. I am afraid to lose a prop in flight if I use the incorrect thread.
3. Landing gears are hard. I have not had much success with landing gears. They tend to be a little lopsided or bow legged when I make them. Any advice for a noob?
4. Are there any GoPro mounting options that give you a better view? Right now all of my planes are puller props and the prop is always in the way of the camera. Is there a huge downfall of making a raised platform on the back of my glider to get the camera higher and to a better angle? Or do I just need to make a pusher?
If you have made it this far into my post thank you for reading this. I hope this can maybe help a newcomer avoid some of the mistakes I have made and also maybe help me become a better pilot and builder in the meantime. I live in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and if anyone is in my area that would like to fly together please hit me up.Thanks!
Below is a link to a couple of my recorded flights and some pictures of previous builds.
I decided to dive into the RC hobby about 4 months ago. I have learned a lot and have a lot to learn. I wanted to write a quick post about my experience so far and a few tips and tricks I have learned along the way.
First of all this is my first post to the Flite Test forums and I am excited to join the community. I stumbled upon Flite Tests YouTube channel about 6 months ago. About 4 months ago after watching 100’s of FT videos I decided to dive in head first. I found an ad on craigslist for a sweet mini Hawker Hurricane for $60 with battery. After I bought the plane I waited for my Flysky I6 transmitter to come in from Amazon and practiced on RC Desk simulator with a PS4 controller. Finally after a couple of days of practice I plugged in all my electronics and went to the park behind my house. I did a simple preflight check and threw my plane into the air. To my surprise I was able to keep it up for about 10-15 seconds before pile driving it into ground. After about 4 more days of attempted flying with no success my Hurricane was not airworthy any more.
I then decided to order a powerpack and the mini warbird pack from FT. I loved building the planes and found the build videos amazingly helpful. After destroying both the Mustang and the Corsair in a short amount of time, I decided that the 2 FT Joshes probably knew what they were talking about in their beginner series on how to pick a plane. I smartened up and downloaded the plans for the FT Tiny Trainer. I learned a lot from my first scratch build and this was the first plane I had success flying with. Since then I bought a Darafly Tundra, scratch built an FT Sportster, FT Scout, and made an extended version of the FT Tiny Trainer I use as a powered guilder. I have recently bought a Mobius action camera and have been taking arial videos. This hobby has been very gratifying and I have really enjoyed it even with the steep learning curve.
I wanted to help others that are getting into the hobby with a couple of tips that I have found. I also have some questions for you experts that I have had trouble finding answers for.
Newbie Tips and Tricks:
1. Take your propeller off when setting up anything on your plane.(Propellers hurt)
2. When you cut foam board put your ruler on the part of the foam that will be the plane. That way if your razor slides off track it just goes into spare foam because your ruler is protecting your model.
3. Make the foam work for you. I found myself trying to cut at weird angles instead of just turning the foam board to make it easy on myself. This will make your lines come out much more consistent.
4. Electronics need ventilation. I have blown up 2 ESC’s now because they were not properly cooled. Make sure you cut a couple of holes to get airflow over ESC’s and other electronics. Foam is a great insulator and these things get HOT.
5. Touch up on your plane. Don’t be afraid to add access points in the fuselage if you need them or trim down the area around the control surfaces to make them move easier. These foam board plane are very resilient.
6. Paint after your maiden flight. I made the mistake of spending hours on a paint job for the mini Mustang before I flew it and if it flew so terribly all that work was destroyed in the first 2 or 3 throws.
7. Study your plane’s stall characteristics. This seems to be something I did not pick up until I started stalling my planes on purpose. When you watch a video on stalls they use a lot of language that a new pilot might not understand. My advice is to take your plane up very high and stall it intentionally to see how it handles a stall and it will also give you a feel of where the stall threshold is.
8. Start bleeding off speed and elevation early when you are approaching for landing. It is much easier to add a little throttle if you are coming in short than it is to safely drop speed or elevation quickly. I have overshot a few landing strips because of this. Also do not be afraid to bail on a landing and make another pass.
9. Have a real preflight checklist. There are many things that have resulted in destruction of one of my planes and most of them could have been prevented with a better preflight checklist. There are many great resources for checklists on Flite Test but I would like to add one thing to it, wear your sunglasses. I have lost multiple planes into the sun because I had no sunglasses on.
Newbie Questions
1. What are the signs that I am swinging a prop that is too big? Will it just blow the motor ESC? What about signs that I can go up in prop size?
2. CW and CCW props, motors and prop adapters. I want to make a dual motor plane for my next project and want to have opposite spinning props. I can not find prop collets that have a CCW thread. I am afraid to lose a prop in flight if I use the incorrect thread.
3. Landing gears are hard. I have not had much success with landing gears. They tend to be a little lopsided or bow legged when I make them. Any advice for a noob?
4. Are there any GoPro mounting options that give you a better view? Right now all of my planes are puller props and the prop is always in the way of the camera. Is there a huge downfall of making a raised platform on the back of my glider to get the camera higher and to a better angle? Or do I just need to make a pusher?
If you have made it this far into my post thank you for reading this. I hope this can maybe help a newcomer avoid some of the mistakes I have made and also maybe help me become a better pilot and builder in the meantime. I live in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and if anyone is in my area that would like to fly together please hit me up.Thanks!
Below is a link to a couple of my recorded flights and some pictures of previous builds.
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