RC Airplane Flying Tips For Beginners

Do you enjoy Radio Control Flying? Flying airplanes and helicopters is a great hobby that’s catching on. If you want to try RC plane flying as well, you will need to first know what kind of plane to buy and how to fly it correctly. When you learn how to fly your RC plane, you can get your RC Pilot’s license for trying basic toy airplanes to massive RC jets. Here are a few flying tips for beginners, starting with how to buy the perfect RC plane.

1. First Steps

• Watch RC airplane videos to get an idea of how to fly, taxi and land your plane.
• Run RC airplane flight similar software to hone your glider or airplane flight skills. RC flight simulators allow you to learn to radio control airplanes without having to invest in one. With a simulator, you don’t have weather or boundary concerns. When you use flight simulators, you can learn the basics without hurting your RC airplane.
• Trim, or fine tune your airplane: there are several adjustments that you will need to make to your airplane to optimize its flying ability. Keep the control stick in neutral, and adjust the trim lever to fine tune your desired corresponding control surface. You can fix issues such as listing to the left or right, to help your plane fly straight.
• Learn how to fly RC planes on a trainer plane. Trainer planes are built to make them stable in the air. How to recognize a trainer plane? Check if the wing is firmly on top of the fuselage. With the fuselage’s weight under the plane, the airplane will level itself out and fly on its own. Once you’ve mastered the basics, you can move on to other planes.
• Joining an RC flying club: when you join a club, you can understand how to fly an RC plane from an instructor. This is the best 'fly before you buy' option that you can explore.

2. Buying Your First RC Airplane

• Size: RC plane sizes are measured based on their wingspan: that is the total wing length from tip to tip. A 50 inch length wingspan plane is considered a good buy by most reckonings. Choose your plane size based on your confidence level and your flying space. RTF electric park RC airplanes can be bought wingspans ranging from 40 inches to 60 inches.
• Stability: As with all firsts, you need something that is forgiving and stable. Don’t be tempted to buy something that looks cool and flies real fast, without knowing how to control the plane. Choose a high wing trainer, where the wing sits on top of the fuselage. With this, you’ll get good stability in the air, which is what you need as a beginner.
• Power: Which power type you choose depends on whether you’re flying it in a restricted public space or an open space. Go with an electric-powered plane if you want to fly it in a park.
• Material: RC planes are built of balsa wood, plywood or foam. Foam planes are light and trendy and a good choice for beginners. Balsa and plywood planes tend to be heavier and suffer greater damage more in a crash. Try a ready-to-fly electric foam RC airplane: this type is cheap, convenient, easy to repair and more durable.

3. Know Your Rc Plane Inside Out

It’s necessary to know your plane inside out. Get familiar with all the parts; map each part to what’s in your manual. Understand the wiring, which transmitter sticks do what, how to secure the wing and what the pre-flight checks. Also do some checking over the net till you know your plane like the back of your hand.

4. Check Final Assembly

Go over the manual and make all final assembly checks to your plane. If you need to transport the plane outside, fix the wing after you reach flying site. Secure the tailplane to its permanent position, slot the landing gear into place and fit the propeller and spinner. Use the batteries that come with the plane or else get hold of rechargeable batteries and a compatible charger.

Teena Celis is a copywriter for Adrenalin, an Australian presents for men company that offers a lot of experiences like introductory helicopter lessons, driving, flying and water experiences all across Australia.

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User comments:

MidnightSunRC at Jan, 31 '12 15:40
Also remember to do the pre-flight check before every flight! Learnt this the hard way with my EasyStar. Enthusiastic to start flying that day I hand launched the plane and when I pulled the elevator stick towards me the plane went straight down into the ground and broke the nose. I had done some testing on my Dx6i and forgotten to correct them before flight.
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small private plane attorneys at Feb, 21 '12 22:58
I had the same problem with my first model.
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