Been a noobie for 3 years :~( help... please.

vk2dxn

Senior Member
Andy is right "start off with the cheap stuff"
The biggest hurdle to master is trimming out your plane whilst in the air.
Once it is trimmed then that is when it becomes easy as to fly, I learnt to fly with a parkzone ultra micro p51 and it is now "literally" a flying ball of glue. It is still my favorite plane to fly and I flew it this morning for farther's day
 

xoration

Member
I've just recently started flying. Like you, I started out with a quad (back in January). I managed to kill that frame, built a tri, crashed it several times. Now I'm learning on planes so I can get a handle on orientation before I go back to the quad.

I don't know which board you are using for the quad or tri but maybe try the KK2 it's absolutely easy to set up for a beginner and it has autolevel which is totally awesome. A friend of mine just built his first Quad and some days ago another Tri and he is flying now for maybe 3 weeks and he is already into rolls and loops.

Learning with autolevel ALWAYS on is very good and quite easy. You will still crash YES but a lot less than without autolevel. As well don't bother with aluminium frames or carbon take good old wood (Maybe a carbon plate to put your electronics on). If it breaks who cares just get another stick of wood. And use zip ties I know a lot of ppl say it doesn't matter whether to use zip ties and you shall use screws but I'm a zip tie guy especially when your still learning. Nothing breaks when you crash the motors pop off it's just gorgeous. Take a pack of zip ties with you when flying and your good to go.

You crash? - No problem zip tie it back on and your good to go.

I hope this helps. :)
 

Tritium

Amateur Extra Class K5TWM
An Ardupilot controlled multicopter in Simple Mode makes orientation unnecessary. The craft always moves away when the stick is pushed forward and always comes back when the stick is pulled back. Doesn't matter which direction it is yawed (it can even be spinning on the yaw axis and the behavior remains the same.

Thurmond
 

Billchuck

Senior Member
Yeah. The quad was a purchased frame, but the tri is ply with poplar arms, with parts zip-tied on. It's survived quite a few crashes, though I've killed a few KK2 boards. I need to redesign the frame to protect the board better, which is part of the reason I haven't put it back together after the last crash.

My main issue is flying nose-in and maintaining orientation. Thus planes, which have less of a spinning cuisinart of death factor to them, which can only move in one direction relative to the controls, and which I can cut throttle and glide if I don't like what's happening.
 

xoration

Member
You killed a _few_ kk2 boards? HOW? :) Do you have any videos? I had a few horrible crashes so far but the kk2 was always fine. A friend of mine was flying at full speed and a prop got loose or broke and he crashed badly. Even that couldn't destroy the KK2 :)

Well with autolevel on you also can glide. Basically if you don't like whats happening don't move the sticks or give full throttle the copter will rise and will keep its momentum but apart from that you will be fine. When your flying your copter it shouldn't spin too much a tri always is more unstable but apart from that it flies just as straight as my quad.
 

DrBones

Member
I've never flown anything RC before. I dreamed of it as a kid...a dream that I gave up on when the balsa frame plane I helped a buddy build (and it took weeks!) crashed into the ground and he was in tears. Well, I'm 46 now..and I've learned my lessons...especially the one about pain of destroying something that cost a lot of money..and parts take weeks to get.

So..along came flitetest..and the concept of foam board building! I was hooked. Got myself an Orange T-Six transmitter and receivers..and started with the FT Flyer. The first three tries flew perhaps 30 feet..into the ground, until I realized: Aha..there is trim..trim up..and trim left..and it will go up and straight now. On the second day I was flying it. When I felt it was about to crash..killed the throttle and let it float to the ground. Couldn't be easier!

I"m now testing myself on the FT Delta..and it is much harder and requires constant control. No "oh crap - kill throttle" strategy on this one!
 

rcspaceflight

creator of virtual planes
I've never flown anything RC before. I dreamed of it as a kid...a dream that I gave up on when the balsa frame plane I helped a buddy build (and it took weeks!) crashed into the ground and he was in tears. Well, I'm 46 now..and I've learned my lessons...especially the one about pain of destroying something that cost a lot of money..and parts take weeks to get.

So..along came flitetest..and the concept of foam board building! I was hooked. Got myself an Orange T-Six transmitter and receivers..and started with the FT Flyer. The first three tries flew perhaps 30 feet..into the ground, until I realized: Aha..there is trim..trim up..and trim left..and it will go up and straight now. On the second day I was flying it. When I felt it was about to crash..killed the throttle and let it float to the ground. Couldn't be easier!

I"m now testing myself on the FT Delta..and it is much harder and requires constant control. No "oh crap - kill throttle" strategy on this one!

I rarely actually trim my planes. I try to, but they still seem to be a little bit off. Probably my bad building skills. Plus I seem to be stuck in a "oh crap" mode the entire flight and I don't want to take my thumbs off of the sticks. Not really a "oh crap" mode. More of a "I don't want to take my thumbs off because it'll crash because it's not trimmed right" mode.

I usually keep my throw a little high and then just hold the sticks where the plane stays in a nice gentle bank and keep flying it in circles. And as I'm typing this I realize that I need to learn how to fly. But I'm starting to do right turn circles, not just left turn circles. Baby steps.
 

Craftydan

Hostage Taker of Quads
Staff member
Moderator
Mentor
If you haven't seen the guys complain, Bixler doesn't trim his either, he just holds the sticks to where the plane flies neutral. It's all good untill he passes the transmitter to someone else to fly.

In all fairness, I do to . . . but I'm trying to reform :eek:

BTW, elevon craft like the delta *can* be trimmed to be neutrally stable, but since it doesn't have any stablizing features (dihedral or polyhedral), at best it will stay where you put it. some times it's hard to get "stay put" to a "stay in the air" attitude. that's where adjusting rates and expo can help tremendously.
 
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With regards to the club, there is only one on this piece of rock I live on and from what I heard I should keep away because of all the stuck up members and rules over regulations, mind you I have never read them yet nor met the members, so I might be the stupid one i not trying.

A lot of people will disagree with me, but in my experience, the clubs have all been way too over the top when it comes to flexing their "authority" on the field. For some reason, people running the inductions and managing the field seem to be more concerned with commanding respect than they do in welcoming people to the hobby. Yes it can be dangerous, yes the rules are there to protect everyone... but really... a bit of common sense and friendliness is all it takes. I'm sure there's some good clubs out there, but so far I haven't found them.

Luckily, we can do it on our own! These days, the RTF models are so cheap and if you choose carefully, so easy to fly that practically anyone can learn to fly without the "buddy system." As per the previous comments, my biggest mistakes were balance... I pretty much destroyed my first glider until I realised the aircraft should be nose heavy, not tail heavy (I eventually read the instructions about CG). In the end, the best success for me came with air time... that meant getting the model high as quickly as possible, which allowed me plenty of time to do corrections when I got the orientation mixed up, or was a bit over anxious on the controls. Then I started flying on the side of a hill so I could trim my model at eye level and not get so disoriented by trying to keep it so high.
 

Billchuck

Senior Member
You killed a _few_ kk2 boards? HOW? :) Do you have any videos? I had a few horrible crashes so far but the kk2 was always fine. A friend of mine was flying at full speed and a prop got loose or broke and he crashed badly. Even that couldn't destroy the KK2 :)

The downside of the "put the control board on top of the center frame" style of multirotor design is that when you completely lose control and it hits the ground upside down, the board is one of the first things to hit. :)
 

SteevyT

Senior Member
Andy is right "start off with the cheap stuff"
The biggest hurdle to master is trimming out your plane whilst in the air.
Once it is trimmed then that is when it becomes easy as to fly, I learnt to fly with a parkzone ultra micro p51 and it is now "literally" a flying ball of glue. It is still my favorite plane to fly and I flew it this morning for farther's day


Sounds like my plane. It is pretty much more glue than foam now, (and I sort of need to reattach the Velcro for the battery a bit) but it still flies decently well. At least well enough that I'm preparing to attach a camera to it. I probably should not have started with this plane in hindsight though (it was a fairly slow flier when I started it with the 2 cell and a brushed motor at least)

http://i.imgur.com/CFOQdCs.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/W48QIIw.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Qi9qjBS.jpg

(yes, that is about a 1/4" section of wing made entirely out of glue in the final picture)