Best beginner 3D/Acrobatic plane?

[L Edge]

Oh, I plan on starting slow with the maneuvers, pretty much doing exactly what you are talking about. I have been practicing in my sim, watching Michael Wargo videos, reading all the articles I can.

He suggests learning Harrier and working from there. I will practice your advice too. Thank you for the help.

The whole point of me wanting to build one of these planes is the fact that I didn't currently possess a plane that had the ability to do any of these things. The most acrobatic plane I have requires tons of forward stick and lots of wiggling to keep it inverted, as it always wants to self correct. I am sure I could learn on it, but at the end of the day I figured it would probably be better that I learn on something meant for it.

 

[L Edge]

Oh, I plan on starting slow with the maneuvers, pretty much doing exactly what you are talking about. I have been practicing in my sim, watching Michael Wargo videos, reading all the articles I can.

He suggests learning Harrier and working from there. I will practice your advice too. Thank you for the help.

The whole point of me wanting to build one of these planes is the fact that I didn't currently possess a plane that had the ability to do any of these things. The most acrobatic plane I have requires tons of forward stick and lots of wiggling to keep it inverted, as it always wants to self correct. I am sure I could learn on it, but at the end of the day I figured it would probably be better that I learn on something meant for it.

For planes, I am going to suggest that you look at videos and reading articles about trimming the plane. See what they recommend to do. Not only in horizontal mode, but climbing and diving in vertical mode. You need to balance not only statically, but dynamically. That helps doing the rolls.
Like all pilots, you need to have an escape plan. Do you know what to do if the wing's start rocking for a harrier? What do you try to stop it without exiting out of the harrier. What is the most likely result if it get's out of hand? One thing you can do is watch crash videos of 3D stuff, and try to figure out what they did wrong. That is another way of picking up knowledge.
Again, If you can do a knife edge and figure 8 inverted, that will save you a lot of crashes.

 

[CappyAmeric]

That looks fun, good pic!


My thoughts exactly. I glued the wings in with gorilla glue so it should be solid there. It looks like where it normally breaks is the back fuse area.


I might look into that. On the bright side I will have 2 and a half planes to crash. Once they get destroyed beyond repair, and I am still enjoying it, I will 100% buy an EPP plane. I just like to be stubborn and build my own first.

Has anyone tried this one out?

https://hobbyking.com/en_us/hobbykingr-tm-mx2-3d-epp-955mm-arf.html

I had one. Quite heavy EPP. Not much battery room either.

 

[SSgt Duramax]

I had one. Quite heavy EPP. Not much battery room either.

Good to know. Common sense kept me from impulse buying it.

 

[Headbang]

Yeah, I am going to take your plane up this weekend. I just need to button up the electronics on it this evening and it will be good to go. I have 5 battery packs for it, so we will see what I run out of first, tape or batteries (I bet the former).

Then my daughters pelican will go on it's final flight before retirement, and once we run out of those packs, we will fly the snot out of the P-40 (I finally got our buddy box system working, so yippee!) It will be her first 4CH flight, so I am pretty excited. If she takes to it well, I may just give her the P-40 as my F6F is nearly done, and I will still have a warbird to fly. I am highly considering sticking an EDF on her pelican, just for science.

That's awesome! I am chief instructor for my club and love it when I can get younger people going and having a good experience. This hobby has a formula. Get them hooked as kids, eventually other things will become more important and they will disappear for 10-20yrs. At some point time, money ect will be less of an issue and they may even have kids of their own. That's when they come back to the hobby and never leave again!

 

[SSgt Duramax]

That's awesome! I am chief instructor for my club and love it when I can get younger people going and having a good experience. This hobby has a formula. Get them hooked as kids, eventually other things will become more important and they will disappear for 10-20yrs. At some point time, money ect will be less of an issue and they may even have kids of their own. That's when they come back to the hobby and never leave again!

That's what happened to me. I disappeared for about 15 years now I'm back.

 

[L Edge]

That's what happened to me. I disappeared for about 15 years now I'm back.

I bet you will have an future interest in pylon(fast ones) as well as heli's and then on to the big stuff.. Highlite will be flying around at 200mph with a jet.

 

[SSgt Duramax]

I bet you will have an future interest in pylon(fast ones) as well as heli's and then on to the big stuff.. Highlite will be flying around at 200mph with a jet.

I may have interest in the pylon ones. Where I currently fly I am not sure I want fast planes. I have a honeybee king helicopter. The rotor head was damaged on it, but I got lucky and found parts to repair it, so I bought a new metal rotor head for it. That way nearly all my RC stuff will have been resurrected aside from my nitro motors, but I believe I have found a place for them.

 

[SSgt Duramax]

Well the EPS snapped when I hit the rudder hard at about 50 feet, in which the plane fluttered to the ground. I believe my next purchase will be an epp profile.

 

[BlockerAviation]

Well the EPS snapped when I hit the rudder hard at about 50 feet, in which the plane fluttered to the ground. I believe my next purchase will be an epp profile.

Or get some epp and carbon. I built this guy for less than $20 in materials and it flys just as good as the jtas and twisted hobbys airplanes.

 

[SSgt Duramax]

Or get some epp and carbon. I built this guy for less than $20 in materials and it flys just as good as the jtas and twisted hobbys airplanes. View attachment 215284 View attachment 215285

Where is a good place to buy the materials, and where do you go about learning to build one. Most of the EPP i find the shipping is high.

 

[Headbang]

Well the EPS snapped when I hit the rudder hard at about 50 feet, in which the plane fluttered to the ground. I believe my next purchase will be an epp profile.

Well now we know! Only time the fb version breaks is when contacting ground lol

 

[L Edge]

Or get some epp and carbon. I built this guy for less than $20 in materials and it flys just as good as the jtas and twisted hobbys airplanes. View attachment 215284 View attachment 215285

How about a video?

 

[BlockerAviation]

How about a video?

Very first flight yesterday.

 

[BlockerAviation]

Where is a good place to buy the materials, and where do you go about learning to build one. Most of the EPP i find the shipping is high.

I got my foam from wind catchers rc, the shipping is a bit pricey but I usually order enough foam and carbon to offset the price. I learned to build them basically through looking at manuals for twisted airplanes and jtas, then just got some plans and went to town.

 

[OliverW]

I got my foam from wind catchers rc, the shipping is a bit pricey but I usually order enough foam and carbon to offset the price. I learned to build them basically through looking at manuals for twisted airplanes and jtas, then just got some plans and went to town.

@Samh has some good foamy plans, he designed the raven blocker was flying

 

[SSgt Duramax]

I got my foam from wind catchers rc, the shipping is a bit pricey but I usually order enough foam and carbon to offset the price. I learned to build them basically through looking at manuals for twisted airplanes and jtas, then just got some plans and went to town.

So buy enough to make a few planes.... got it. I was thinking by the time I paid shipping for the stuff to make one, I may as well just buy a kit. But then I realized I wouldn't even know what to buy.

@Samh has some good foamy plans, he designed the raven blocker was flying

Thanks, I'll check it out.