So I just bought my first R/C plane...

[aqua_scummm]

Its a HobbyZone firebird ii. Cheap, easy, and a start. I can't wait to gain experience to get something faster, and start building my own. Batteries are charging as we speak, hopefully it won't be too windy this afternoon.


I got it for 75. I coulda got the st for 79 online, but this way I dont have to pay shipping or wait for it, so thats cool. Plus the hobby dude was cool and gave me the 5 pack batteries, and sold me a spare pack pretty cheap.

I'm excited, it will be nice to move away from the free flight stuff and get more control.

[hobbico99]

just remember the firebird ii needs a lot of room at least 400 by 400 ft.
good luck and tell us how your first flight goes.

[aqua_scummm]

Yeah, took it to the park for 5 minutes today, the batteries were from a demo model, so I had to kill the charge. The motor died (battery preservation feature) mid turn as I was heading away from a fence. The plane landed partially turned, prop flew off, and took a little chunk outta my wing :(. Its small though so no biggie, cant wait to get out tomorrow and do it again, with a much longer flight

[Adam G]

I bought the same plane 2 weeks ago. I have about 20 flights in already. The thing flies great. Just be really careful of wind. They can disappear out of sight in seconds with even an 8 mile per hour wind. I have a huge field I fly it in, and it still managed to get way from me. I have found that the last hour before dark things really calm down. It is so pleasant not to be bucking the wind constantly. Good luck!
Adam

[Leo L]

There is a very good article for beginner flyers on the horizonhobby.com website. The article is titled: The Runway: Getting started in RC Flight Blog. The writer uses Horizon Hobby's products (HobbyZone), but the information is very good and should be applicable to all beginners. His experience is very similar to mine. I started flying this past April using a 2-channel RTF (Firebird Commander). After numerous crashes and encounters with trees, I finally got pretty good with it, so I decided to move up to 3-channel. I bought a ParkZone Cub, but that didn't last too long. On the maiden flight, an experienced flyer was helping to adjust the trim, but by the time that he was finished playing with the controls over my shoulder, the plane was more than a 1/2 mile away and ended up crashing. We searched, but never found it. I then bought the Megatech Airstrike and decided to do all of the trimming myself. The first two flights resulted in nose first crashes, so I set that plane aside, figuring that I will return to it when I get a lot better at flying. I then bought an Aerobird Challenger, and have had a blast with it. It is a very natural progression from the 2-channel Firebird, and is very forgiving. I recently bought a used Cub and have had a ball flying it, although my landings are still a little rough.

The biggest lessons that I learned: 1) You cann't beat the wind with a beginner's plane. I prefer flying early in the morning, just after sunrise when the wind is at a minimum and there are no people around. 2) In a contest between your plane and a tree, the tree will win every time! Stay away from them, or stay well above them.

Have fun. Flying is a great time.