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Ready to Fly Aircraft Electric Trainers EP Gliders Electric Aircraft Slow/Park Flyers EPP Models Gliders Large Scale Gliders IC Trainers I.C Sports Models Warbirds/Scale |
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This is a simple guide to starting in Radio Controlled Aircraft Modelling. There is a lot of good information out here on the Web but much of it is American. So I have written this from a British perspective because it can sometimes be difficult to tell how much of the US-based information is still relevant over here. I have also provided a simple including a number of US/UK differences in terminology which can be confusing. Let me give you the highlights up front.
It may sound a little strange now you're all fired up and ready to go, but the first step is NOT to dash out and buy a plane, engine and radio. This is the order of things to do, at least in my opinion.
Joining a club By far the easiest, safest and least expensive way of learning to fly is to join a club and get some instruction. Instruction is always free but in most cases would be worth paying for. The ideal training situation is using a "buddy box" lead linking your radio with the instructor's radio. The instructor has a switch which he presses to allow you to control the plane so he can take over any time you get in trouble (and you will !) just by releasing the switch. Since not all radios have this facility and different manufacturers do it differently this is a good reason for selecting your club first and checking what equipment they use for training before buying your first set. So the first step is to find a local club. If there is a model shop local to you they will be able to help so go and see them first (but don't be tempted into buying a plane they just happen to have in stock. Check with club memebers and your soon to be instructors first). In many areas this will be all you need to do. If there is no local model shop then the best thing to do is to get in contact with the BMFA (British Model Flying Association, more on them later) either via their Web site www.bmfa.org.uk or by phone on (0116) 244 0028. More and more clubs, like my own club Reading MAC, have a presence on the Web. The BMFA site has pointers to most of them. In addition the BMFA folks will send you a list of the model clubs near you together with a contact name and phone number for each. When phoning the club contacts please chose a sensible time of day, most people work and do not appreciate phone calls at times like midnight or 6 a.m. The most important questions to ask are probably: Do they fly the type of model you want to fly ?
Choosing your equipment Having joined a club it is now worth checking what sort of plane and particularly radio equipment your instructor recommends. The radio gear is important because you want something that can be used with a "buddy box" and it is also helpful to have the same "Mode" as your instructor and/or most people in the club. Most modern equipment has 'Buddy box' capability built-in, you just need a lead to connect the 2 transmitters. The club may well have the lead you need, if not it won't be very expensive or, if you can handle a soldering iron you can build one yourself. As you've seen on R/C Flight Unlimited, Mode means basically how are the controls placed on the radio 'sticks'. In the UK you will find that Mode 2 (throttle/rudder left, elevator/aileron on the right) is most common in the South. The further north you go the more likely it becomes that everyone will be flying Mode 1. Which plane GET A TRAINER. However tempting it is to start with a scale Spitfire or a really aerobatic Fun Fly or something like that, it is not a good idea. Get a simple to fly, easy-to-repair plane designed to learn on. If you are as good as you think, you can soon move up to your ideal plane though many people (like me for example) find their trainers last them for ages. A 3 channel trainer will have controls for the rudder, elevator and throttle. It will also have quite a lot of dihedral and so be quite stable. A 3 channel trainer will probably be a bit easier to fly initially. If you have not taken the rest of my advice and are determined to learn without an instructor than I would go for one of these. It will be a bit more forgiving of some of the mistakes you will make. A 4 channel trainer will have ailerons in addition to the rudder, elevator and throttle of the 3 channel model. If you have a club and an instructor then I would suggest a 4 channel trainer. Although it is not quite so easy to fly it is perfectly possible to learn on and will probably last you rather longer. A good 4ch trainer is remarkably lively when you have learnt to fly and many will perform most of the aerobatic manoeuvres you can think of. What power/size For most people the .40 size trainer is about right. That is a plane designed for a standard 2-stroke Glow Engine, about .40 size (that's .40 cubic inches or about 6 cc). You can get others bigger or smaller and obviously the models they fly are also bigger or smaller. Pros and cons are :
I now intend to fly mainly electric for those reasons but one of the things which put me off electric for my initial trainer was that my instructors didn't know much about or particularly like electrics. If you can find an instructor who is keen on electric flight then go for it. But in most cases it is probably better to save them for later.
Building and setting up As you've seen the choice is whether to build a kit or assemble an ARF/ARTF model. There are pros and cons to either approach. A kit will take you longer, but you will havea real sense of achievement and learn more about how models go together. This could be very useful if you have the bad luck to crash (and most people do at some time) as you will have a far greater understanding of how to repair your plane. Most of the instructions for beginners kits are very good these days and will provide very detailed step-by-step instruction to help you through your first model. On the other hand an ARF model will get you flying faster. Personally I chose one of these specifically so I would not have so much effort "invested" in my first trainer in the hope that I wouldn't feel so bad when it inevitably got a bit bashed about. Whichever you choose, you probably need to do a little gluing and you will need to fit the radio equipment and adjust a few things. So let's get some of the associated terminology out of the way. The most commonly used glues these days are CA (cyanoacrylate "instant glue"), epoxy and aliphatic. Standard PVA wood glue is sometimes used but aliphatic is very similar bit dries much faster. CA glues come in several viscosities, thin, medium and thick. The setting times for these range from 5 to 30 seconds. They all work best for wood to wood with fairly well fitting joints. They eat plastic foam (as in foam wings) almost instantly. Since you use very little of them they are very light. But beware, the fumes given off by CA as it sets are fairly unpleasant and some people become quite allergic to them. The symptoms are usually tightness in the chest, inability to breathe properly and various flue-like effects, runny nose, itchy eyes etc. Use in a well ventilated area and if you get any of these symptoms be careful. Epoxy. There are 2 sorts of epoxy, the normal adhesive and the epoxy used for skinning models which is much thinner. They are all fuel-proof and very strong. They are also very heavy. Epoxy is useful with foams, where not much else works well, and for many materials other than wood (e.g. gluing plastic snakes). The adhesives are specified by time (5 minute, 30 minute etc). There isn't very much difference in the strength (the longer time is slightly stronger). You need to be aware that the time given is the setting time. You have considerably less real working time than that. 5 min epoxy will give you about 2 minutes to get all the glue you have mixed onto the parts and everything accurately in place. After that it will be too sticky to use. There are some people who are allergic to epoxies. The symptoms are sometimes similar to those for CA but more commonly involve painful skin rashes. An allergy usually only occurs after considerable exposure but once it starts it never goes away. Once allergic even very small amounts of epoxy can cause quite severe symptoms. Aliphatics. Look and act much like PVA white wood glue but set faster (2 hours against overnight). Compared with the other glues they are still slow and therefore require you to plan your work a bit better e.g. sort out lots of bits, glue and pin a whole bunch of parts then go for lunch or to bed. They are at least as strong as CA and can be much stronger where the joints are not a very good fit since they have some gap filling properties. On the plus side, I have not yet heard of anyone having any medical problems at all with these glues. I use aliphatics whenever I don't need the specific properties of the other glues i.e. much of the time, though for electrics the weight saved using good joints and thin CA sometimes tempts me away. There is now a glue related to these called Superphatic which has many of the characteristics of CA. It's thin so will work into joints which means you can assemble the joint then apply the glue. It dries reasonably quickly but still takes minutes rather than seconds. I use it a lot. R/C terminology Airtronics (US)
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