My first RC plane

What you should know before buying a radio control plane

There are specialties that, due to their flight conditions, speed or ability, impose greater difficulty, for which they are not recommended as initiation modalities. now we give you the keys to choose your first plane well.

In principle, the most recommended flight specialties to start with are flying with high-wing trainer planes, electric motorsailers or towed gliders with sandow or on slopes with moderate winds; in which the plane is very close all the time and the reactions of the plane to the controls are quickly learned.

To do this, you always have to have an insider nearby and a dual control cable (teacher/student) is very useful, with which the teacher gives control to the student while holding down the "trainer" lever, regaining control at the moment that releases her

When choosing a model, we should not get carried away by the attractiveness of the aircraft's lines or by the passion for a certain combat aircraft, it would be like learning to drive in a driving school with a racing car, it would not make much sense . First we have to learn to take small steps, then walk and eventually we will run. Nor is it a good choice to start with a model that is too cheap and therefore normally small, the bigger the planes, the better they fly, the smaller planes usually weigh a lot for their size, which makes them faster and more unstable, requiring quick corrections for their flight and some control.

Most of the initiation planes give us clues of what they are with their name, it is the case of "easystar" (easy start) or "trainer" (trainer).

KITS, ARTF, RTF AND COMBOS

What is there to choose from in the market? Fortunately , the stores dedicate more than half of their products to initiation models , normally for two reasons, one because many are called and few are chosen, since many start and because of a bad experience or because they do not like it, they do not continue, and another reason is because there are those who are always flying trainers, since they enjoy them and do not need more complications.

Let's explain what each of the above concepts are:

RTC KITS

they are construction boxes with all, or part, of the pre-cut pieces in wooden plates, strips, plans and accessories, necessary to build the model step by step; they are increasingly difficult to find, and the price does not compensate economically compared to the price of the finished plane, it is built for the pleasure of building.

ARTF

(almost ready to fly) "almost ready to fly : they need a couple of afternoons, to glue some parts, assemble hinges, transmissions, servos, motor, etc... but the main parts such as rudders, wings and fuselage are done and painted, although there are artf without the exterior finish so that we can customize it to our liking.

RTF

(ready to fly) "ready to fly": they usually need from a few minutes to a few hours to put them in flight, depending on their size or complexity. The normal thing is that they bring mounted servos and transmissions, which does not mean that we cannot check their fixation and position.

COMBOS

In the previous cases, they do not usually have an engine, especially if it is an explosion engine, or a battery, receiver, transmitter or radio, so we will have to buy it separately, which is why stores and even manufacturers offer combos (sets) of complete initiation with motor, radio, battery and even charger (in the case of electric) and transmitter, motor and starting accessories (for explosion).

To begin with, it is cheaper to buy everything together, since the combos are offers with a great discount , also for this reason they offer lower mid-range equipment to be cheaper, so if one is going to continue advancing in the future, they will surely end up buying a better radio and more channels.

MATERIALS

Regarding materials, before we used to say that we preferred fabricated wooden planes since they could be repaired, but the reality today is that few know or want to repair a broken wing made of balsa ribs, among other things because you have to have time , wood and coating for repair. so it is easier to glue a broken cork wing by joining the piece with the appropriate glue, wait for the drying time and that's it.

A balsa wood model is usually lighter than a cork one, but to begin with it is preferable that it withstand the blows that we are sure to give it while we learn, this is the greatest advantage of corks over wooden ones.

THE FIRST STEPS

To assemble the plane and take the first flights, we will always be accompanied by an experienced modeller, he will help us when we have problems, and for our part we must not be impatient or ambitious, we must wait for the right day without wind. It is convenient to launch gliders and motorsailers by hand for the first time, checking the correct glide and then practicing flight circuits high enough to be able to recover in case of a dive.

Landing is the most difficult maneuver, we will have to repeat it until we do it almost instinctively, in short, it can be said that we have learned to fly when the plane goes where we want and where we want and does not behave erratic .

We must not forget that performing a fairly good takeoff, turn and landing is always a success, most of us modellers do nothing else day after day and this is not without its incentive since in a flight many things can fail. things that we should always check before taking off, the night before or on the airfield.