Teaching Yourself. Learning to fly a model without an instructor.

After a few disasters I finally got wise. First I'm going to swear you to secrecy, do you swear to keep this to yourself? If not, bugger off and read something else!


Right then, a few of us cannot get help, for a number of reasons, my excuse is I'm too far from anywhere, although, in truth my nearest club field is only 20ks away. What's nearer to the truth is that I can't suffer fools, especially fools and 'knowitalls' who, when they find out I have my own flying area, complete with an 8acre body of water, want to share it with me! I'm not a very clubby person.

The first job you have to do is get a flight simulator for models. The one's they give free with ready to fly (RTF) models are rubbish, stay away. I bought the Great Planes, Realflight G 3, which I found perfect, since I could always skip to 'cockpit view' if I got into trouble. At the time it was the only one available, but I'm sure there are better, or better priced on the market now.

The 'sim' will only take you just so far, I found it very difficult to get any sense of scale and distance. However, despite what people may say, the sim will help you along the way.

Sooner or later you're going to feel you're getting no further! Believe me when I say, any time I got the plane on the runway was an accident! However, you can take off and fly around. Now is the time to start looking for something to fly!
Don't go for a 'hot liner' I tried a Multiplex (MPX) Blizzard, big mistake! I chose a MPX Funcub at Stephen (the Beard)'s instigation, but a Mentor would have done just as well. A tip here, save money, don't buy the MPX power set, buy from somebody like Giant Cod or BRC, you'll get a great deal at a 5th of the price!
The reasoning here is that this a machine that you're learning on, you don't need Rolls Royce at Rolls prices.

Right, you've bought the model, assembled it and are setting it up, use a 'Y' lead to connect the ailerons, you're going to need the simplicity. If you don't have dual rates, set the control throws to half what is recommended, no more!
If you do have dual rates then set them half (50%) and full. If you have dual rates then you probably have Exponential, set this for 50% on all surfaces, both types of rate. If you don't have Expo, then 'be gentle with her!' ie, be very carefull on the sticks!
Now check everything out and make sure that the control surfaces move in the correct sense, the commonest to get wrong is the ailerons, check this twice. When you push the turn stick to the right, the right hand aileron must come UP to push the wing down. Do this twice.

Ok, so now you've set it all up and it looks good, do not attempt to fly! If you bought a budget transmitter (TX) and kept yourself in check you've now spent about 200quid. You are now going to spend the best 29quid of your life, buy a Hal2100!
Yup, some people love em, some hate em!
Take your shiny new model apart and fit the Hal, it's easy, just follow the instructions, it gets inserted between the Elevator and the Ailerons, and there is another connection to a spare channel for switching in and out. I used the gear channel.

Up to now you've been flying a sim, if you're anything like me, sitting down in front of the computer. Get yourself a neck strap and set the length to put the TX in exactly the same place when you're standing, THIS IS IMPORTANT!
Check the Hal according to the instructions, but beware! When you get the the field it will be wrong! Check the Hal at the field, it uses light to find the horizon so watch where you put you hands! Tilt the model back, and watch the elevator drop, tilt forward and watch the elevator give up.
Tilt the model to the left, the right Aileron should stick up to bring the wings level, if any of this is wrong then you must pull out the Hal box and reverse the sense. (it has reversing switches on it).
Now, take a deep breath, and, with Hal switched in and on half rates, give full throttle and launch the plane!

Now, provided your control surfaces were all flat, Hal has taken over and is flying the plane, gaining height and flying away from you.
QUICK, give her some aileron to turn, she's flying, you'll quickly find that you have to reduce throttle because she will continue to gain height. If you don't give any control inputs she'll fly straight and level out of sight (OOS)

Wow! I didn't realise I'd touched a chord, (puffs hinself up and takes a deep breath).
Don't try to fly circuits, just orbits (circles around yourself), any time anything goes wrong just let go the sticks, you'll be amazed how quickly the Hal sorts it out. The secret is to keep your height using the throttle, and stay on half rates if you have them.
After about 2 or 3 minutes you're going to be tired, don't switch Hal off, just get the plane heading towards you and cut the throttle, Hal will fly her all the way down to the ground. If you feel brave, start feeding in up stick (pull back) as she gets close to the ground, do it gently, but to be honest I was just happy for her to arrive on the ground in the long grass.
End of flight one.

First flight is over and you've still got lots of battery left! Think through your first flight and where you went wrong, most likely you over controlled in certain areas, especially if you don't have Expo.
Exponential, in the early days of proportional radio control there was no Expo, if you pushed the stick halfway to the stop, the control surface went halfway to its maximum travel. This made things very difficult for beginners because as you move your elevator you tend to push into the aileron side of things and vice versa (that's old git for 'and the other way too') If you set 50% Expo then the movement is softened, ie, when you move the stick half way, the surface only moves about a quarter.
We won't even get Garry all excited by talking about 'bang bang systems'.

On my first flight I used 60% Expo. Ok, our heart rate monitor has stopped bleeting at us and we want another go. Same again, Hal on, full throttle and give her a good shove, forwards and upwards, Hal will do his job. Bring her around in circles and throttle back to about half, when you're ready switch Hal off and try a manoever, say reverse the direction of the circle. Keep your hand on the switch! As soon as you get into trouble, let go of the stick and switch Hal back in again. When the aircraft has recovered, try again, you'll be amazed at how quickly you gain confidence.
Stop press! I've altered one of the earlier posts (#6), you need to read it.

Hi Garry, I hope I'm not disremembering, I'm pretty sure I got mine from Sussex Model Centre (who are great by the way) about a year ago.
Right, you've had another 2 or 3 minutes in the air, now bring her down the same as last time, Hal on, coming towards you, chop throttle and let her come down, this time you'll have much more idea about how much elevator to feed in.
Bet you were much closer that time!
Next step, open the model, remove the battery, pack the model in the car and go home, go on, I'm serious, any more flying you try and do will end in tears!