Newbies

[Lord Flashheart]

Hi Fellers

Myself and a few friends have stumbled across this site and decide to form our own little squadron.

Seeing as none of us have ever owned or flown an RC plane we liked the "no geeks" attitude towrds the site. After looking a little further I am beginning to get the impression we may have bitten off more than we can chew and some of the guys are now talking about "training" and "clubs" and "insurence".....is all this stuff really necessary or can we just have a bloody good laugh with these flying beauties?

Also where can we fly and are there set rules to all this?

[MalcolmS]

Hi There Lord Flashheart

I am a fellow Londoner so I know how you feel about where to fly these planes. As far as I know there are no rules governing where to fly them other than common sense. I fly in a fairly big park that is empty most of the time (check out the location here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jj9Exxb6o0c) and only fly when there are not too many about. Admittedly so far that has been with my Super Cub but I have flown (and crashed but that is another story) my Spitfire there and all seems fine even when some policemen were walking nearby. As for insurance I presume that is only a problem if you injure others which if you are alone won't be an issue (presuming the rest of the guys you fly with won't worry about running away from a plummeting aircraft :-) ) I don't think you can insure against damaging your own aircraft which of course you will as we all do it!!! :-)

As for training try downloading the free PC flight sim called FMS. Or to start with buy a Super Cub as these things fly well and when they do get bent still don't look too bad covered in sticky tape. The Warbirds are a LOT more difficult to fly but the Spit is the easiest of them (and the best looking). The Cub also has the X port which allows you to drop bombs and parachutes and also so air to air combat if you are flying with others - check out the Hobbyzone website for more info.

Of course the best route is to join a club and get others to help and teach you but to be honest there is plenty of info on the web (excellent supercub advice here: http://supercubclub.proboards78.com/index.cgi) and just going out and learning on the Cub is pretty good training!!

Also don't forget if there are a bunch of you flying you need to make sure you have different channel radios. All the parkzone/hobbyzone stuff are on one of six 27Mhz channels so only six can fly at one time. I am sure you can specify channels when ordering from Squadron Leader.

Good luck

Malcolm

[Lord Flashheart]

Hi Malcolm

Many thanks for getting back to me, I kind of figured those would be the answers but wanted to make sure so really appreciate the advice. Had a good chat with the guys a S.L too and they said pretty much the same so my mind is at rest about the aircraft and we are placing our orders this week for planes, 4 Spits and 4 Fokker, can't wait!

I think I have found a pretty quite and secluded park too, so an early morning meet for our Squadron should be OK.

If you’re in London maybe you can come down and show us how it's done one time? I think we'll be busy crashing a few times first though...ha ha.

Thanks again

[MalcolmS]

Hi Lord F

I live in the Norwood area of S London near Crystal Palace. Happy to come along and watch you guys and maybe advise a bit although I am no expert!! Have flown CUb lots but Spitfire is two flights with the second time making a lawn dart 5secs after launch!! Have been waiting for weather and time when am not working and waiting to be brave enough fly Spit again. Best bit of advice I've had re flying is not to do it if it doesn't feel right i.e. tired, late, windy or just plain worried.

Best flying advice I have had is when plane is coming towards you but not level move stick to the side of the lowest wing. This will make the plane become level again. It is intuitively wrong - when plane goes away from you and you move stick to lower wing that wing lowers more. If you remember stick to lower wing when coming towords you you will be fine.

Let me know when you are ready to fly and I could bring vid camera along as well - would be fun to see lots of warbirds together!!! :-)

Malcolm

[denali]

The FW190 was the first plane I ever owned.I crashed it a couple of times and decided to buy a flight sim.Best money spent.Yes I still crashed and will continue to because thats what happens.But most of my crashes lately are mechanical failure or brian failure.I now have a spitfire and it's gone crash free so far(around 30 flights)
You and your friends should get together and buy a flight sim to cut the cost.
I too am from London but the one on the other side of the big pond.

[Lord Flashheart]

We're all kind of resolved to the fact that there will be some severe damage caused on Saturday at the maiden outing of our Squadron.

We took delivery yesterday of all 8 aircraft, a fantastic sight I'm sure you can imagine.

Once we've got ourselves sortd I'll let you guys know and maybe we can get a "super Squadron" up in the air ; )

Watch out for Photo's next week, sure most of them will be us crying with our broken planes..ha ha

[MalcolmS]

Hi Lord F

Thought I would post some advice for your flight so it is not entirely tearful with lots of bits of foam strewn over the park :-)

1) If possible let everybody have a go on their own first-its hard enough to track your own aircraft without bumping into another
2) Do check all the controls are working i.e. elevators, ailerons and throttle and everything is centred
3) Make sure everybody else's transmitter is off
4) If more than one is flying make sure you are on different channels
5) Launch the planes level, at full throttle, into the wind (see my entry under "Why did my Spit crash" in the Spit section of the forum)
6) Get the planes high up so that you can avoid getting too close to the ground i.e. get three mistakes high
7) You don't need full throttle once you are at a good height so ease down to about 75%
8) Dunno about the FW but the Spit will glide into land easily without stalling so you can cut the power before touchdown to save the prop.
9) HAVE FUN!!!!!!!!!!

Can't wait to see the pics or video

Good Luck and Tally Ho!!!

Malcolm

[Eddieboi]

Bit of an old topic but I also live in london, I actually live in SE London in Bromley so crystal palace park is not far at all, I can get the 227 very easily...trying to learn to drive will save me soo much hasslbe but for now the bus will have to do

[Radweld]

Hi and welcome to Squadron Leader, as others have said, if you have never flown an RC plane before then you have to know how to reverse the controls when the plane is coming towards you, the best way to learn this is use the free Flight sim FMS. You can even buy a dummy RC controller to plug into your PC so that you move the sticks just like you do for real.

Once you know hat each control surface does and understand the basics of flying, you can progress to something easy like the super cub. We suggest these because once they are flying, they fly slow and you can let go of the controls and the plane will still fly straight and level. If you tried this with a Spitfire etc, it would probably crash.

Once you can fly the Cub in circles and figure 8's you can look at performing more advanced maneuvers such as loops etc. Once you can comfortably fly the Cub then you can progress to the war birds.

If you just jump straight to the spitfire its highly likely you will stuff it.

Good luck.

[Eddieboi]

Yup hence why I got a flight sim, I dont plan to fly my spit as of yet maybe middle of august etc once Ive had some practice. My RC Car friend has already smashed his P51 Parkzone Mustang up needs a complete front rebuild from what he said so yes...lol

[ralphp]

Well the London wing is formed! Glad to see you on board Lord Flash Hart!
I think the main thing we can all agree on is "HAVE FUN" and take crashes as a lerning curve....all landings are are controled crashes.....he he

Once you have the general idea (or confidence to fly) the only real thing to say is "GO HIGH" this will mean you can get used to moving about the sky with out those bandit trees jumping you....not so much "coming out of the sun" at you but "out of the forrest!"
LOL!!!!

Welcome aboard young men....sort your cravat and pipe, im of to the mess....mines a large one!