Coming Soon - A helping hand for the noob

Coming Soon!
Listen in as Matt (FoamyDM) does his best to help Joe jumpstart into the Aviation RC Hobby. We cover our experiences, questions, and try and bring a better understanding so we can all spend more time flying, and less time scratching our heads. :unsure:
 
Awesome! when will you guys be recording?
We haven't set a specific schedule yet. I think.
We have recorded the Following:
  • Episode 0 - Introductions
  • Episode 1 - How to get started - If you are interested let us help you get started.
  • Episode 2 - What's What - A Terms and RC setup overview.
Episode 1 is complete. Joe is finalizing Ep. 0 and should be able to pull Ep. 2 to final Quickly.

Episode 3 this weekend. (When noobs get together - Where to find your stuff)
The plan is to continue at a every-other-week pace. Should give us some time fly or build or something, and then prep the episode subject matter
 
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sprzout

Knower of useless information
Mentor
Talk about battery basics - safety with charging (i.e., NEVER leave your batteries unattended while charging, when not to continue using a battery, 2s vs. 3s vs. 4s, perhaps. I know it seems REALLY basic stuff, but I see a lot of different questions on batteries and how to care for them. Might be good for an episode. :)

Something else to cover would be transmitter basics - not so much brand specifics, but things like different protocols, how many channels you may want, why cheaper isn't always better (i.e., a cheaper used DX6i is limited to 10 models but the more expensive DX6 has up to 250 models it can store), ergonomics of the radio (if it doesn't feel comfortable in your hands at the start, is it going to feel comfortable while flying for 10 minutes or more?), support for setting up the radio - i.e., if you're flying at a club and everyone's flying Spektrum, or Futaba, or Graupner, but you bought a FrSky radio, odds are good nobody there is going to know how to configure your radio. Or, you've got a problem with the radio that falls under warranty - does the manufacturer take care of you, or are you going to have to jump through hoops? And is the manual easily readable, or was it written in programming language and translated to Chinese, and then from Chinese to English, where there might be mistakes that don't make sense?

Those are some big things to tackle, I know. :)
 

FoamyDM

Building Fool-Flying Noob
Moderator
Awesome! when will you guys be recording?
We have recorded the Following
  • Episode 0 - Introductions
  • Episode 1 - How to get started - If you are interested let us help you get started.
  • Episode 2 - What's What - A Terms and RC setup overview.
  • Talk about battery basics - safety with charging (i.e., NEVER leave your batteries unattended while charging, when not to continue using a battery, 2s vs. 3s vs. 4s, perhaps. I know it seems REALLY basic stuff, but I see a lot of different questions on batteries and how to care for them. Might be good for an episode. :)

    Something else to cover would be transmitter basics - not so much brand specifics, but things like different protocols, how many channels you may want, why cheaper isn't always better (i.e., a cheaper used DX6i is limited to 10 models but the more expensive DX6 has up to 250 models it can store), ergonomics of the radio (if it doesn't feel comfortable in your hands at the start, is it going to feel comfortable while flying for 10 minutes or more?), support for setting up the radio - i.e., if you're flying at a club and everyone's flying Spektrum, or Futaba, or Graupner, but you bought a FrSky radio, odds are good nobody there is going to know how to configure your radio. Or, you've got a problem with the radio that falls under warranty - does the manufacturer take care of you, or are you going to have to jump through hoops? And is the manual easily readable, or was it written in programming language and translated to Chinese, and then from Chinese to English, where there might be mistakes that don't make sense?

    Those are some big things to tackle, I know. :)
    Thank you @sproutz. I have a fifty-ish episode topic list. Battery safety and transmitter are early shows.
 

FoamyDM

Building Fool-Flying Noob
Moderator
I thank you @bracesport , DLGs and slope soaring is something we will be tackling. Joe and I thank you for the support.

I can't wait to upload this and truly launch this adventure.
 
M

MCNC

Guest
Finishing for the artistically impared. I have been amazed with what @BATTLEAXE has accomplished and shared with us as well as many others that produce beautifully finished planes that leave a noob in awe. My builds are pretty solid, but I have yet to decorate or work on any type presentation, one because I crash so much and two because I don't have an eye for it. If there are beginner finishing techniques that don't overweight the plane and add too many hours to the build, I would like to hear them.
 

Goose Igaly

New member
I will take some time to look at @BATTLEAXE 's finishings. I know that I personally am still in the "crashing too often to make it pretty" phase. Matt @FoamyDM suggested just some simple colored tape on our Old Fogeys, and just two pieces of tape made them look a lot better than just plain white. I think it was Brothers' Tape? Matt can pop in and correct me on the name of the tape.

20200126_035441.jpg 20200126_035455.jpg 20200126_113211.jpg

I happened across a thread the other day where a guy was talking about minwaxing his pieces in preparation for painting. If my Old Fogey survives its flights tomorrow I might reward it by starting to put some decorations on it. This could certainly be a good subject for a future episode.
 

BATTLEAXE

Legendary member
If anyone has any questions about the finishing techniques I have done don't hesitate to ask. I am more then willing to help out where ever I can. Anything to help people get into the hobby with ease. I am looking forward to hearing what you guys have to offer as I am learning all the time as well
 

Vimana89

Legendary member
One thing that's going to be huge with getting started and choosing a first plane is control schemes. To start, you should go over the terminology and how the different control surfaces differ in what way. As a beginner, I used to call all of them "flaps" or just "control surfaces",. It is very helpful for a beginner to know the difference between elevator, rudder, elevons, and ailerons, where they are located, what their functions are, and how each affects the plane during flight and on what axis.

They should also know the difference between pitch, roll, and yaw, and how these forces interact, such as combining roll and yaw with dihedral for a R.E.T. plane. This should extend in to how that applies to RC control schemes; 3ch and 4ch, covering the different 3ch variations a beginner will likely encounter and how they handle differently. Cover R.E.T. and its use of dihedrals to couple roll and yaw, cover A.E.T "yank and bank" and full roll control, and how that differs from R.E.T., and also cover regular elevons and V tail elevons, how they differ, and how they do the job of both ailerons and elevator, requiring two channels whereas ailerons take up one.

This is all very basic, but very technical stuff that I think is extremely helpful to know.