Real pilots, please read this.

[Martin Lee]

How do the handling etc. of a r/c plane compare with a small plane?
I have about 40 mins in a tutor, a single prop, low wing plane. Next month, that number will be about 3 hours.
Just wondering if it will be easier to fly an r/c after flying the real thing. There are two control columns and pedals, and the pilot let me land it, he just talked me through it. I flew it myself, with no intervention from him, apart from talking to me, for about 25 mins+landing. I know it may sound like I feel I am an expert after 40 mins, but I don't feel that way at all, it is just I won't be getting it for about 3 months, if I do get one, and by then I will have flown for about 3 hours.
Just wondering how they compare in ease of flying, and handling.
I take it they get moved around by the wind a bit more?

[phuffstatler]

It is NOT the same. At all. Everything (feelings, view, etc.) that feeds back to you in a real airplane, has no affect on you as a modeler. Plus, when the model comes toward you, the ailerons and rudder appear to operate backward, from your viewpoint on the ground. You have to learn how to move the aircraft around without imagining yourself in it. You simply don't have the time to think all of that through before the model goes Splat.

Just like you need an instructor for the real one, I heavily recommend an instructor for learning models. It will make your learning curve much more fun, and save oodles of bucks in your wallet, too.


my 2.5 cents,
phil in austin

[AirWarriorBelgy]

what phuff said --word-

inside the pit is a big difference to r/c modeling

you have flown already and have gotten a "feel" for the plane

you don't get a "feel" for a model cause you can't relate to it with your senses other than sight.


but...basic flight dynamics are the same, you have flown fullscale from inside, you already understand alot of the basics like trimming , maintaining and even strain, not jerking the controls around to extremes, and should pick up model flying pretty quick..as i did.

there is no stall buzzer and flat spins can be countered much easier most times.

somewhere on this board is a posting of a model flyin simulator that is free

although sims aren't the real thing they are still the next best thing to a real instructor

secondly if you get in to this hobby you will find it to be expensive
i fly some of the cheapest planes you can buy..but still wind up with about 200.00 dollars into each plane before i can actually fly it ( plane $50.00 +/- 10.00 electronics 100.00 to 150.00)

if you want to start flying these puppies read the postings to find an inexpensive one everybody has their favorite and every plane has it's strengths and weaknesses

my recommendation to any newbie would be just about anything from GWS (grand wing servo) that doesn't have ailerons
ailerons on a real plane (full scale) are easier to handle than ailerons on a model because you can't feel the tilt ( shift in gravity )

i started on a pico F model and have purchased the tigermoth as a follow up

the j-3 cub is a great p[lane too from this company although i don't own one i have seen them fly and they are very good too

best thing about GWS is most Kits come with the motor and only take 2 to 6 hours to build

there is always the 2 channel firebirds which requires almost no build time but all you get is throttle and rudder ( climbs by throttle increase and descends by throttle decrease)

[Mikerjf]

Ditto the above. I started RC to help with full size aerobatics (get an outside perspective on control movements). With no instruments and no seat of the pants feel RC's more difficult to learn.

Mike

[clawson]

Martin,

I got a PPL(A) when I was young, free and single and logged about 80 hours. Now I'm old, married with a mortgage and can't afford to do it any more so I get my kicks with flying R/C models instead.

As the others have said, there is no real relation between fulll size flying and flying models. Flying a real plane (I flew Cessna 152s and 172s) is not actually that much different to driving a car (I get more of a thrill driving my sports car than I ever did flying!). Flying R/C models, on the other hand, can be quite an adrenalin rush (especially when one of your Twinstar aileron linkages decides to let go just as the plane is flying out of the local park towards a line of houses and parked cars!!!).

The main difference is that in a plane you get instant feedback to your control inputs (the so called "flying by the seat of your pants") whereas flying R/C you're just a distant observer and have to quickly analyse the effect you control inputs are having on something some distance from you. I guess it's this lack of instant feedback that provides the real excitement. Add to that the control reversal phenomenon as the plane comes back towards you that you don't get in the real thing where you are always looking out the front from a fixed viewpoint.

I guess the fundamentals of flight apply to both and things like the importance of trimming out control pressures or using power, rather than elevator for altitude on the approach (which seems like the wrong thing to do) is a lesson that's drummed into you when flying the real thing that hopefully rubs off when you come to flying models but other than that it's "chalk and cheese".

Cliff

[TRASKOS]

Martin Lee
As every full size pilot who also flies RC says" RC is more difficult'. I am also one that found that out. You are remotely controling an RC airplane in 3 dimensions. The airplane is off in the distance and you have a transmitter which does not allow you to feel anything the airplane is doing. Also you have a very differant viewpoint. I think it would be the same whether it`s a boat or are car. It`s easier to operate the full sized one by being in it.
I started RC with a 4 channel airplane and found that up to a .60 sized airplane I did not need the rudder to make turns.Just the ailerons were used. The rudder was just used for steering on the ground and for certain maneuvers in the air. It was when I got into 1/4 and 1/3 size airplanes that the rudder was used with the ailerons to make proper turns. As in a full sized one the rudder is used to correct for adverse yaw. If you just use the ailerons for a turn the nose will swing in the opposite direction. The rudder is used to keep the nose in the same direction as you are turning.
I guess i`m from the old school because I don`t understand why all the suggestions for a newcomer to start RC with rudder only.

traskos

[Martin Lee]

I am considering joining the RAF (british USAF).
I would like to go the multi engine path, and quit as soon as possible.
This means that I would have a ppl, and be able to fly commercial planes. I could then get into commercial aviation. I would love to get a degree in something other than physics, to fall back on, as I would not be able to do it all my life, I would want to settle down etc.
I am only 14 now, but I need to start to plan my career, as my school has some really weird options. To get into an IT course, I need to do latin and greek, for some reason they help. This means I can't carry on with CDT, which means that it will be hard to get an engineering degree, if I want. I really think that I should do this. Be a really good pilot, and the go civil. I would be an officer, get treated real well for a few years, and then go as a pilot, and get treated well again. Lovely life. I really wanna do something in aviation, engineering or IT, perhaps a mixture of them. If I cannot be a pilot I would want to be an engineer/designer, which again the RAF would train me for. What to do, what to do?

[SLOWFLYER]

I would say the only thing that helped me going from full size to RC is the basic knowledge of aerodynamics and understanding how a plane flies and what you can and can't do without making the plane stall.:D

[TRASKOS]

Slowflyer

Amen to that. You are 100 percent right on.

traskos