mayan
Legendary member
Yesterday I have ended a journey, the journey I embarked upon when I came across FT and this wonderful hobby. You can read the 46 page of my journey here. That thread is long but shows every step of the way I went to get to where I am today in this hobby, and it might save you some bumps on your learning curve.
When I was writing my final post on that thread yesterday, I reread the entire 45 page that it was and decided I'd bring up a list of some tips that might help you. I posted it on that thread but was recommended to open up a new thread just for these tips so here it is again (moderate please excuse me for re-posting
).
# On any build you do I recommend that you reinforce the holes where the BBQ skewers go through using an old credit card, gift cards, plywood, or poster board; reinforcing these holes will make things last longer. I personally use post board as it’s cheap and easy to find.
# Have spares! Spare power pods with firewalls and with or without a motor and ESC connected to them, servo arms, wing sets, basically anything that you can break and can easily be replaced at the field. Ain’t nothing more annoying than having charged batteries and nothing to fly while at the field.
# CRAP check before every single flight and after every single crash. If you don’t there will be consequences, you have been warned.
# Embrace your crashes. Understand that a crash is not a failure but a lesson to be learned and a way to improve and get better.
# Build, Fly, Crash, (Repair), Repeat! The more you do this the better you will get at everything; building, flying and not crashing.
# ASK! Use the forum to ask questions, if something doesn’t work or you need advice post it on the forum. Everyone here will be happy to help with knowledge or even just motivation.
# A plane doesn’t have to look good to fly good, it hurts less when an ugly looking plane crashes.
# Share! We all love to see what you are up too and love giving a good word and advice too, so don’t be shy! Plus it helps with one’s moral.
# Read the forum, you’ll always find something interesting to read and something new that you can learn.
# Experiment! Try things on your own the more you try the more you’ll learn, lessons learned alone are lessons learned for life.
# Have fun! After all that’s what it’s all about! If you are not having fun anymore something is wrong; stop think and rethink how to bring back the fun, come back when you’ve found it.
# Explore! Understand that every model you’ll fly will have a different flying experience, will handle different, and react different. After all the more models that you’ll fly the more experience you will get and understand what models you like more and which less.
# Learn to fly straight while staying leveled making shallow left and right turns , it seems easy but it’s not! Try it and you’ll find out.
# Learn to fly inverted if you’ve mastered this with a model you are in control of the model feel free to move on.
# When crashing take notice of a couple of fixed scenery in the field it will help you find your plane and / or use a lost plane buzzer.
# Don’t drain your battery voltage too low so you won’t ruin them. Draining a battery to low will make it not charge any more.
# Learn to fly in wind, you can’t keep waiting for the perfect sunny windless day, you might be waiting forever.
Here are a few more that one of the my many dear friends on the forum also suggested and I totally agree with him.
# If possible share a video of your efforts at flying because then you can examine the flight to see what the plane was doing and how it was responding OR NOT as the case may be.
# Use the forum mentors as a sounding board to assist you in analyzing flight problems and possibly even setup or piloting errors. Trying to fault find on your own with limited knowledge can result in much frustration AND WRONG diagnoses.
# If you do not understand the advice given ask for an explanation. Often the original advice given was correct but ignored because it was not fully understood until much later when the learning caught up with the explanation!
# Use a good and modern radio system. A good radio can make a poor pilot look good and a bad radio system can make an expert look like a very poor pilot! There are plenty of good radios available and some are quite inexpensive! Also learn how to setup your radio properly.
This is very important changing my radio system soon.
# Follow recommended settings for the FT planes you build. More control deflection does not improve performance!
# Be patient and if possible start at the beginning! Trying to learn on a warbird or similar performance model can add time to your learning to fly and lots of frustrating repairs and rebuilds.
# There is NO post of SHAME on the forum! We have all crashed models and most if not all of us still do, even the so called experts! Remember the forum is here to help you get in the air and stay there hopefully at the lowest possible cost!
Hope this helps. If anyone has more tips to add please do. @Arcfyre, @PsyBorg, @FDS, @CarolineTyler, @buzzbomb, @kilroy07, @Kendalf, @Jimun, @d8veh, @Hai-Lee, @FastCrash45, @daxian, @rockyboy, @Grifflyer any the manys others whom I might have forgotten to tag I know you all have a lot of knowledge and experience to share too, so don't be shy.
When I was writing my final post on that thread yesterday, I reread the entire 45 page that it was and decided I'd bring up a list of some tips that might help you. I posted it on that thread but was recommended to open up a new thread just for these tips so here it is again (moderate please excuse me for re-posting
).# On any build you do I recommend that you reinforce the holes where the BBQ skewers go through using an old credit card, gift cards, plywood, or poster board; reinforcing these holes will make things last longer. I personally use post board as it’s cheap and easy to find.
# Have spares! Spare power pods with firewalls and with or without a motor and ESC connected to them, servo arms, wing sets, basically anything that you can break and can easily be replaced at the field. Ain’t nothing more annoying than having charged batteries and nothing to fly while at the field.
# CRAP check before every single flight and after every single crash. If you don’t there will be consequences, you have been warned.
# Embrace your crashes. Understand that a crash is not a failure but a lesson to be learned and a way to improve and get better.
# Build, Fly, Crash, (Repair), Repeat! The more you do this the better you will get at everything; building, flying and not crashing
.# ASK! Use the forum to ask questions, if something doesn’t work or you need advice post it on the forum. Everyone here will be happy to help with knowledge or even just motivation.
# A plane doesn’t have to look good to fly good, it hurts less when an ugly looking plane crashes.
# Share! We all love to see what you are up too and love giving a good word and advice too, so don’t be shy
! Plus it helps with one’s moral.# Read the forum, you’ll always find something interesting to read and something new that you can learn.
# Experiment! Try things on your own the more you try the more you’ll learn, lessons learned alone are lessons learned for life.
# Have fun! After all that’s what it’s all about! If you are not having fun anymore something is wrong; stop think and rethink how to bring back the fun, come back when you’ve found it.
# Explore! Understand that every model you’ll fly will have a different flying experience, will handle different, and react different. After all the more models that you’ll fly the more experience you will get and understand what models you like more and which less.
# Learn to fly straight while staying leveled making shallow left and right turns , it seems easy but it’s not! Try it and you’ll find out.
# Learn to fly inverted if you’ve mastered this with a model you are in control of the model feel free to move on.
# When crashing take notice of a couple of fixed scenery in the field it will help you find your plane and / or use a lost plane buzzer.
# Don’t drain your battery voltage too low so you won’t ruin them. Draining a battery to low will make it not charge any more.
# Learn to fly in wind, you can’t keep waiting for the perfect sunny windless day, you might be waiting forever
.Here are a few more that one of the my many dear friends on the forum also suggested and I totally agree with him.
# If possible share a video of your efforts at flying because then you can examine the flight to see what the plane was doing and how it was responding OR NOT as the case may be.
# Use the forum mentors as a sounding board to assist you in analyzing flight problems and possibly even setup or piloting errors. Trying to fault find on your own with limited knowledge can result in much frustration AND WRONG diagnoses.
# If you do not understand the advice given ask for an explanation. Often the original advice given was correct but ignored because it was not fully understood until much later when the learning caught up with the explanation!
# Use a good and modern radio system. A good radio can make a poor pilot look good and a bad radio system can make an expert look like a very poor pilot! There are plenty of good radios available and some are quite inexpensive! Also learn how to setup your radio properly.
This is very important changing my radio system soon.
# Follow recommended settings for the FT planes you build. More control deflection does not improve performance!
# Be patient and if possible start at the beginning! Trying to learn on a warbird or similar performance model can add time to your learning to fly and lots of frustrating repairs and rebuilds.
# There is NO post of SHAME on the forum! We have all crashed models and most if not all of us still do, even the so called experts! Remember the forum is here to help you get in the air and stay there hopefully at the lowest possible cost!
Hope this helps. If anyone has more tips to add please do. @Arcfyre, @PsyBorg, @FDS, @CarolineTyler, @buzzbomb, @kilroy07, @Kendalf, @Jimun, @d8veh, @Hai-Lee, @FastCrash45, @daxian, @rockyboy, @Grifflyer any the manys others whom I might have forgotten to tag I know you all have a lot of knowledge and experience to share too, so don't be shy.
