My third first airplane.

Hai-Lee

Old and Bold RC PILOT
Great advice. I am aware of the trick of coloring one wing (see image) to keep track of orientation, but I was not aware of the left/right approach you mentioned, I will try that out as well. As for turning, I am tempted to do that but I feel like that's 'cheating' and would just make it take longer to train my brain.

Thanks!
The turning works to fast track the safe approach on landing and over time you need to turn less until the turn is only in your mind as an orientation check only.

As for cheating:unsure:, if it means the difference between a safe landing and either extensive repairs or buying a replacement I recommend cheating every time! Its your money and time flying around and attempting to land! I teach safe flying and leave repairs to the planes owner, (mostly:rolleyes:).

Have fun!
 

Cypress

Member
The turning works to fast track the safe approach on landing and over time you need to turn less until the turn is only in your mind as an orientation check only.

As for cheating:unsure:, if it means the difference between a safe landing and either extensive repairs or buying a replacement I recommend cheating every time! Its your money and time flying around and attempting to land! I teach safe flying and leave repairs to the planes owner, (mostly:rolleyes:).

Have fun!

Point taken ;)
 

skymaster

Elite member
glad everyone loves to help out . i still have my first tiny trainer, but not the same nose. had to make a couple of new one's. I have always used 850mah 3s or the 1000mah 3s. the 1000 i used when it's kind of windy it give's me more stability . one other thing that i learn is when you start most of us stay near the ground big mistake. what you want to do is climb as high as you can and that will give you room to correct any mistake's before hitting the ground. take it slow and have fun .
 

Cypress

Member
glad everyone loves to help out . i still have my first tiny trainer, but not the same nose. had to make a couple of new one's. I have always used 850mah 3s or the 1000mah 3s. the 1000 i used when it's kind of windy it give's me more stability . one other thing that i learn is when you start most of us stay near the ground big mistake. what you want to do is climb as high as you can and that will give you room to correct any mistake's before hitting the ground. take it slow and have fun .

Haha I keep thinking about that. The ground feels so safe but it is the thing that will destroy my plane! Every time Josh says 'get 2 mistakes high' in a video I think "But it's scary up there!"

In the simulator I stay low, too :S Need to break the habit.
 

FDS

Elite member
Higher up is always better. If your plane slams into the ground your flight is usually over, if you just get disoriented and have to shut off the throttle (a good idea if things go really wrong) and then figure out which way is up, you might manage a less hard “landing” or recover. You won’t fly out of radio range easily, you will lose sight of orientation first, a lost plane can be recovered (fit a beeper.) That’s why a flying field not hemmed in by trees and obstacles is a good idea.
All my worst damage has happened because I tried a big manoeuvre or made a big mistake in a small amount of height.
I would put some big obvious colour on the bottom and top of your wing too, the stripes you have are nice looking and very neat, but a bit small.
 

Cypress

Member
Okay so I'm glad I made the landing gear break-away with rubber bands. Plane is in one piece, no repairs needed. To be fair, another pilot flew it most of the time. My 60 seconds at the stick and my overconfidence in wanting to land so badly led to the landing gear pulling off but it was more a matter of missing the runway (see earlier comment about lining up) and less a matter of losing complete control.

Other than that...Nobody had seen a Flite Test plane before and they were all pretty interested so that was really cool. Can't wait to show them the Simple Scout next - I'm going to order it next paycheck but I won't be able to get the power pack for months :(

And since a kid my favorite plane has been one that actually led me to Flite Test to begin with -- The Sea Duck. One day...one day.
 

Tlawrence1169

New member
Well ftest airplanes are unique, because they are built by you, which means they can be repaired or even completely rebuilt by you. A friend of mine just rebuilt her FT mini scout for the second time after about 6 violent crashes. So those 6 crashes cost her a total of $1 for a new sheet of foam board.

The other cool thing about flite test airplanes, is there is no reason you cant gut an airplane once your done with it, and move electronics to something new. I would recommend something like the FT tiny trainer, because it can grow with you easily. you can start at a chuck glider, and go all the way up to a sporty 4 channel. With a more beefy ESC in the initial build, all that will need to be changed when you move to something else is an appropriate motor and battery.

Trust me, successful flight on an ugly plane is way more fun than crashing something that looks cool. ;)

A decent list of FT planes to look into. I do not have experience with all of these, so others can give further recommendation
-FT Tiny Trainer
-FT Mini Scout
-FT Simple Storch
-FT Simple Scout (maybe?)


I agree completely!!!!!
 

Cypress

Member
I agree completely!!!!!

Funny you re-up the original reply -- I had my second, third, and fourth flights last night. 2 and 3 were uneventful - I backed off my enthusiasm and let a pro take off and land for me, and I just flew patterns. Had some wobbles transitioning from facing away from me to facing toward me, but getting better with simulator time. Flight 3 a wind gust put a wing up at the wrong time and I lost it and nosed it into the ground.

Broke the power pack and the tail cracked, so I was done for the night. But about 20 minutes cutting out and making a new power pack and some glue and tape on the tail and I'm ready for next week!

Edit: Would like to have buddy boxed but nobody had a flysky radio :(
 

Brianna81

Active member
Or you can buy a $40 WLtoys Cessna 3channel and fly anywhere

THIS! I know I'm not the only one who started this way, and I highly recommend it. It's cheap, but sturdy. Light, but maneuverable (for a first and 3 channel plane at least). But it's great for learning on. I also recommend starting out with the transmitter it comes with, then after the first few flights and your comfortable, bind your Flysky transmitter to it. You get so much more control you didn't realize you had. However, there's not really a switch to allow you to turn on the "safety" mode, so it's always in "advanced", hence why I said make sure your comfortable first :). But yes, it's a great starting point