Some clues on flying RC aircraft for beginners

It was almost a year or more since I started to try my hands on flying RC planes. What I am trying to say is, really flying one without causing a disaster or just up the sky for one circle and the next moment ended up nose down to somewhere in the swamp or tree tops. I had my fair share of plane crashes!

For beginners, we have the tendency  to buy smaller and cheaper planes so that when we crash them, we have the thinking that this will not cause a financial pinch and pain even if we were to write-off and rubbish the planes completely. Actually the smaller the plane, the harder it is for us to handle it outdoor; this is because a slight breeze will severely affect  its stability, not to mention about strong gust of wind, which is fairly common when flying by the seaside or near mountains.  To compromise, I suggest a mid-size, lower speed high wing or curved wing plane with higher angle of dihedral would be a better choice for beginners. An electric plane of mid-size I would consider that as one which has a wing span of less than or equal to 1.4 meter. Some examples of slow electric planes which I flew before are Slow Stick, Soarstar, Phoenix 2000 and Cloud Fly etc. Some of these planes are actually a hybrid of glider and normal high wing plane, which are good for a start in acquiring the basic RC flying skill.

The tricks that nobody could actually teach us are primarily on the control of the plane movement. Theory itself will not help much without actually trying to fly and have a  feel on the planes by ourselves. Some of the clues worth mentioning and sharing here could be useful if you intend to start this hobby:

1. The choice of the transmitters, could be either in mode 1 or mode 2 orientation. Most of us are taught to be right hander since we were young. For this obvious reason, most of us, the dexterity of our fingers are more suited for mode 2, where the left hand of the control is used to activate the engine throttle and the rudder, while your right hand on the stick is used to control the pitch and the roll of the plane, i.e. the elevator and the ailerons. The difference of mode 1 as against mode 2 control is just those 2 sticks are located in opposite direction on the transmitter.

Why I say this mode 2 is generally better, it is because once the plane is fully throttled up the sky to the desired height, you will turn back down the throttle at a fixed position of the stick using your left fingers just to maintain and keep the flying height, thereafter you hardly have to meddle with the throttle anymore, probably once a while just to throttle up a bit against the wind or to manourve the plane for landing. For beginners, the rudder is not frequently utilized other than for sharp and tight turn, or navigate the direction of the plane for landing or  taxiing on the ground. Playing frequently with the ailerons and elevators using our more versatile right fingers on the right hand side stick is good enough to fly the plane in the air most of the time.

I was first introduced to this hobby using mode 1 and now I had changed mine to mode 2. The choice of having mode 2 is not an absolute thing, it is up to you to choose whichever mode you think you could be more at ease with.

2. The trick of turning the plane actually is not just using ailerons or rudder ALONE, which is a common misunderstanding or wrong concept for most beginners. It should be a combination of, ailerons which bank the plane and nose it down a tad bit,  and up the elevator at the same time to execute a smooth and nice turn, either to the left or right! This is an important trick that took me many months to grasp the concept and I finally got to perfect this skill by practicing it on a simulator.

When you start to circle the plane around, choose to execute and pracise it well, either a Left Hand Side LHS or a Right Hand Side RHS turning ONLY for the start. Once you master it say, the LHS turning, then you will know how to turn the plane back towards you if the plane wanders too far away that could lose the control signals. When you sense the plane is in trouble, at least you have the LHS turning skill that you could comfortably fall back to. You just keep on circling the plane the familiar LHS way, so as to give yourself more time to stabilize the plane or summon the help from a more experienced flyer. It is always good to have some experienced flyer to guide you and help you by your side at the beginning.  I owe this very much to Mr. Winston Chu, who had helped to coach me with great patience on the skill of beginner flying!

3. Most of the planes once fine tuned properly using the trims on the transmitter, will fly horizontally in a stable manner (Under no strong wind condition). If you take them high up enough,  and experience a dive or tip stall etc, just let go of your hand on the particular stick which controls the ailerons and elevator, the stick will automatically spring back to its original neutral central position. Under this condition, most if NOT ALL the planes by nature will align by itself and gain its horizontal position once again within split seconds. Please note that do not try this on the plane if it is already too near to the ground, it will not have enough altitude and time to react, it will just crash!

4. Fly the plane in simple turning pattern, then go home and practise with either a Phoenix SIM or Realflight simulator on a computer. You could slowly acquire your new skill of turning to the RHS in additonal to your already skillful LHS turning, After that, go on with a combination of LHS and RHS turnings so called a " figure of eight" flying etc. The advice here is, fly the actual plane, practise with the simulator, then improve on flying the actual plane again , repeat the cycles until you are good at it.

After going through all these, I could now fly the Soarstar right across the small park near to the housing estate that I am staying. It is sheer joy and fun that I could finally able to fly a RC plane.