I went the self taught method at first. I figured how hard could it, be? Left/right, up/down. Piece of cake I started off with an Ace Glider (forget the name, but it was a something MKII ) way back in 1989. It had foam wings, and a lite ply fuse with a Cox Baby Bee .049 in the nose, and was about a meter and a half. The thing really was a brick. While I was waiting for my radio to come in, a buddy and I were racing R/C cars at a park of sorts. It was in a small valley. I had the glider with me to show my buddy. He talked me into putting a "few drops" of fuel in the motor and seeing how it would glide. Well apparently I put in more than a few drops. We launched the thing and it made a really nice climbing circle...out of site over the trees. We went after it, and watched as it headed for a busy street some distance away. As it kept going we realized it MIGHT land on the busy street. It finally settled down a little before the road.
Boy was that a dumb move in hind site
Here's an approximate "view" of the flight path: http://maps.google.com/maps?msid=212860 ... 18&vpsrc=6

Well the glider was none the worse for it's little free flight trip. Turned out it was the best flight it ever made. The radio came in, and after MANY MANY attempts to fly it, it never really went well, and crashed beyond repair. After I learned to fly I got to fly one for a newbie at the field. Turned out it was actually a rather difficult plane to fly.
Next up was a Gentle Lady. It looked a lot lighter than the first one, so I figured it must be easier. I forget all the details, but I never got more than a few turns out of it, before crashing it. Crashes were not bad enough to write the plane off, but my flight time to repair time ratio was heavily skewed towards repairing.

While I was trying in earnest to fly that darned glider, the local club had a mall show. I stopped in and got the scoop. I needed a 4 channel .40 sized trainer, and needed to go to the club for training. Thursday night was the night. I was told that beginners didn't go out on weekends. Well it was the end of fall, so I built a PT-40 during the winter and went to the club field in the spring. I met up with the "official" club instructor. Well he promptly crashed my plane, and on the 3rd "flight" he deemed it unflyable.
I was seriously doubting if this was for me. Here was supposedly one of the easiest planes to learn on, and the "official" club instructor couldn't fly it. I also noted that the regulars out there on Thursdays had been doing this for various lengths of time, up to 7 years, and all they did was fly around in sloppy circles, and occasionally hit the runway on landings. They mostly landed in the grassy area surrounding the runway. So I shelved the plane for a while.
Then a few months later the wife and I were out in the area of the field on a weekend, so we stopped to watch. WOW, there were actually guys who were doing a LOT MORE than flying around in sloppy circles, and who actually were able to not only hit the runway, but land down the center line. I ended up meeting a few of the guys. As I was telling my story to this one guy he just busted out laughing.... He said that was typical, and to bring my plane out on a weekend. He helped me get going in short order. As it turned out the PT-40 was not unflyable (duh) , and served me well. I ended up giving the plane to one of the older club members after I was done with it. As far as I know, it is still flyable.

As I later found out, the official Thursday night training night was a joke among the rest of the club. I went out on Thursdays after I learned to fly, and ended up teaching quite a few guys to fly. They were the ones that saw what the "official" club instructor did to their and other's planes, and saw that I could actually fly more than just a sloppy circle, and I was able to consistently hit the runway ;-)
That group (a smaller group now though) is still flying on Thursdays and most still fly in a sloppy circle, and can almost hit the runway. The "official" club instructor is still instructing (and crashing trainers). I make it out when work allows. In reality they are a great bunch of guys who enjoy the hobby, and want to share it.... they just haven't gotten very good at it

Oh yea, the old Gentle Lady... Well after I learned to fly, I put a radio back in it , and gave it a go. Turns out one of the wings had a REALLY bad warp. After that was corrected it was so easy to fly I almost couldn't crash it if I tried. After many years it met it's end when the radio failed. We have a chain link fence at the field. It hit the fence perfectly. The nose was about 10 foot on one side, and the wing/rear fuse/tail were a crumpled mess embedded on the other side.

Well that's my story as best as I can remember... it was a LONG time ago ;-)

 

Holy Cow... that was a long post. I wrote it bits and pieces at a time between doing things at work... didn't realize how long it was...

 

My first plane was a Modded Bird dog and "What was I thinking" epp Yak.
Quite a few Crash and Fixes.


BD

Yak


If I were starting out all over again I would get the Wing dragon III it has to be the best trainer I have ever seen. It can take a Good hit and it can Fly fast or slow,up side down, loop, hold cameras. All out of the box at a good Price.


Here is someone flying one for the first time.



Cheers
E-T

 

My 1st model was an old Cox warbird control line plane back in about 1977-78. About all I can remember about it was that it was drab green and that the spring loaded prop starting system really, REALLY hurt your fingers on a crisp, cold day.

My first RC model was a Midwest Big Stick kit w/ST 61. No clubs within 100 miles at that time so I read alot, built the plane, crashed the plane, a lot, repaired the plane, a lot, and eventually was able to take off and lannd without incident and that is about the extent of my current piloting skills.

After a few years and many models later, I took a long break from RC until the electric/foam craze took off and the Phlatprinter became available. Ever since then I've been nothing but foamies and cheap electronics.

:flying: