Hi,
I used to have rc boats and cars about 30 years ago 'that makes me feel old!' I have always wanted to fly rc planes and have decided that now is the time to start, I have gone ahead and bought a Hobyzone carbon cub s+ and a spektrum dx9 but after watching loads of youtube vids everyone seems to favour the apprentice.
can you tell me what you think please as i have not taken delivery yet so it can be returned.
many thanks.
Welcome to the forums! Don't worry about feeling old by having boats & cars from 30 years ago - I started with a Tamiya Frog and a Tamiya Falcon, and used to long for a Team Associated RC/10.
The Carbon Cub S+ is a great plane to learn on; what you got is perfectly fine. The reason that a lot of people prefer the Apprentice to the Carbon Cub is due in part, I think, to a couple of factors.
1) The Apprentice has a steerable nose wheel, making it a little easier to learn to taxi and steer with than the Carbon Cub's tail wheel.
2) The Apprentice has a slower glide slope than the Carbon Cub - that is, the Apprentice will float down while flying down to the runway, whereas the Carbon Cub tends to drop a little faster.
3) The Carbon Cub has flaps; the Apprentice does not. The biggest difference with this is that the flaps are an extra switch and can complicate things if you're learning; my best recommendation is to find out which switch controls it, and then LEAVE IT ALONE while you learn to fly. Let me reiterate it - LEAVE THE FLAPS ALONE WHEN YOU'RE FIRST LEARNING.
There's enough to worry about for bringing the plane down smoothly, and while flaps CAN help with that, it may be something more that complicates things when you're starting out.
The DX9, as mentioned by
@mrjdstewart, might be a little bit overkill for the Carbon Cub S+; that said, if you start getting into other, more exotic planes such as warbirds with retractable landing gear, quadcopters, helicopters, gliders, etc., you WILL want the 9 channels that the DX9 offers - and I think the DX9 will do 99.9% of the plane setups out there that you might want to fly in the future, so rest assured you've made a good choice with your transmitter.
All of the above info is mostly just opinion, mind you, and a LOT of it is left to personal preference - except, I'd say, for the advice about the flaps; that might cause more trouble than it's worth if you start trying to throw the switches before you're ready. I'd also recommend that you see if you can find a flying field/club to help you get it trimmed out and flying great, and help you learn to fly.
Hope this all helps!
