Hi all from the Pacific Northwest

[JTG]

New here, but not new to RC. Was into planes years ago off and on for a brief moment and when I moved to Vancouver Island, I ended up racing on road and off road cars. Back to planes! I'm finished with racing .... I just want to put fun back into the hobby , not stress! My best memories are from when I was kid all out bashing Tamiya trucks with my buddies at the school yard. I get plenty of laughs watching the Flite Test videos which I started watching about five years ago. Enough watching - I want to laugh! Does anyone know of any big flight festivals on the west Coast? Living on the Island there is just less of everything, RC included. There are a couple of clubs run by old guys with way too many rules, not my style flying in a pattern all day. Id love to attend something like Flite Fest. I just started a Tiny Trainer scratch build chuck glider as I do not currently have any flight electronics.

 

[rockyboy]

Welcome to the forums!

It's sad when people forget to have fun playing with their toys - hopefully you can bring some of that spark to your island clubs eventually, but don't let their sour attitude hold you back.

I'm on the east coast myself and don't know of many west side gatherings, but they are out there. One place to check is https://www.modelaircraft.org/event-calendar most big things end up getting listed there.

For the electronics side, what's your budget and background? Do you love tinkering and learning how things work and building / rebuilding and knowing how all the programming happens? Or do you just want the radio setup mess to get out of your way so you can go fly?

 

[JTG]

I usually like to have a good understanding of how the electronics all work. I usually spend hours getting acquainted with al the menus on the radio and the functions and deciding what I do and do not need for my purposes. I have had some fairly complex radios (as far as surface radios are concerned). Having said that, I really appreciate simplicity- just no to the point of forever using RTF radios. Maybe the first time around Ill use one for a bit, but then likely move into Spektrum ,Frsky. Futaba is great, but I just want to try something else as my last few surface radios have been Futaba. Ill check put the the link too. Thanks!

 

[Dante]

You could start out by just buying a brushless outrunner and a large prop- then you could make an airboat out of a sheet of insulation foam and the servo, esc, and transmitter from an old wrecked rc car. I did that and it performs great. It could get you back into the mindset of steering by air, rather than rigidly steering by land. Plus they're just really fun. I've built 4 so far-2 with old traxxas parts. It also provides satisfaction of designing and building something yourself that works- if you slap a motor and a rudder on anything you can make it work as an airboat.