Hi All. I'm Tony and I've been into building and flying model planes for a very

A warm welcome from me Glenn, we have a local expression "haal uit en Wys", but, what the hell, good to see you, very few rules here except no flaming.

Welcome Glen, I Iook forward to you possibly adding to the forum content. Your design and build of the puppeteer could be good in it's own Topic.

Welcome back Rob and welcome to the forum Glen

Hi,

I live in the North of England and am retired. My working life was spent in engineering in several places in the UK.

I am a fairly experienced model builder but all boats, both naval and commercial. I felt that I wanted a change and decided to have a go at a flying aeroplane model. My problem is what to build as there is a huge choice available. I would like a challenge and so do not want something that takes little building. I would also like an aeroplane model that looks great and I really like the look of WW1 and WW2 war planes. However, and this may be a conflict, I have no experience of flying a model aircraft and therefore it should really be a forgiving flier for a novice.

Any advice would be very gratefully received.

Cheers.

Greeting David and welcome, what part of North East England do you live???

A very warm welcome to you Dave, I'm sure your building experience will be appreciated and a great benefit to us here.
The list of suitable trainers is a wide topic but replica warbirds are generally avoided, although there are exceptions.
The standard 'recipe' is:

1/ High wing- This is practically a given because of the stability.
2/ Wingspan should be 55" and above- Debatable, but large enough to see and is less affected by crosswinds.
3/ Easy to build- You can scrub this one I reckon!
4/ Easy to repair- In your case not such a big deal but the longer the model is out of action, the less time you spend learning to fly.
5/ Should be 'Full house' if you are under tuition- That's four channel function; Rudder, Elevator, Throttle, Aileron (RETA).

The Super 60 is a firm favourite and may suit your building experience, it's not a difficult build but it is a strip fuselage structure with built up wings rather than foam and sheet and meets the criteria above, it's also a nice looking model.

I'll hand the baton to the other members from here......

Welcome from me as well David, I agree with stf's comments although you could consider a junior 60 as Well, presumably your thinking of electric power? I'm the resident diesel weirdo but the other guys on here have a wealth of electric experience.

First step - find a local club where you feel welcome. (that's a bit tricky right now!)
Most clubs run a 'have a go' policy, with one of a variety of trainer models, with dual control connected by a 'buddy lead', so the Instructor has the master control, and you have the slave.
Second step - DO NOT buy a Spitfire! That's like going for your first-ever driving lesson - in a Ferrari!
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Do lots of studying before you spend a single penny (I'll let you buy books and magazines!)
Find out what radio gear your local club Instructors use, that way they already know how to make adjustments to the software!
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I'm guessing, from your name, that you live in or near Chester? :woohoo: I'm in Warrington, and Quorneng is in Lymm.

Eric wrote: Second step - DO NOT buy a Spitfire! That's like going for your first-ever driving lesson - in a Ferrari!

It's actually worse than that, like turning up to your first driving lesson in a boat.....

Hi,

Many thanks for the comments, all very useful. To clear up the first point I live in Chester le Street, County Durham about half way between Durham City and Newcastle. Mostly locals call the town Chester hence my username but I apologise if that confuses with the city of Chester.

Most model boats still require quite a lot of woodwork and hence the structure of the Super 60 appeals to me. Sadly there is a small but growing trend for RC model boat kits to have more and more molded plastic parts which I find disappointing. I think my emotions would want me to go for something like a Sopwith Camel or my favourite of all aircraft the Mosquito but common sense is coming to the fore and the Super 60 looks like a really good start.

I had not considered engine type as most boats are electric powered. I suspect I would start with electric power but is this something you need to decide at the start or can it wait until the build is well on? Also do aircraft use different motors, for example lighter. Same comment with batteries I suppose.

I will also look out for the local flying club and see if I can attend one of their meeting but it will have to be after lockdown.

One last thing regarding buying books. As getting to a decent bookshop is difficult at the moment has anyone any suggestions as I will need to buy from the internet. It is useful to have the internet but it is impossible to judge the quality without the book in your hands. A couple of years ago I bought a book on garden birds from a well known internet company only to find it was for American birds. There are not many Carolina Chickadees in Chester le Street.

Many thanks again.

David
All advice so looks good.
Flying a plane is not natural to humans so it takes time and lots of repetition to acquire the necessary eye/hand coordination until it becomes instinctive. The learning process is made worse by the vagaries of our wonderful weather (and any lockdowns!).

So my view is you should consider separating the 'building' from 'learning to fly'. Crashing an RC plane is a fact of life particularly while you are learning. More flying skill simply results in it happening less often and maybe with less severity.

There is nothing stopping you building your hearts desire straight away but while you are doing that learn to fly with something that is 'ready to fly' (so you know it flies even if you can't!), easy to fly, robust, cheap(ish) and just as important easy to fix.
There is nothing more disheartening than seeing many hours of your work being destroyed by your own hand in just a couple of seconds yet nothing so exhilarating as flying a plane you have made and returning home with it in the same state as when you left.

And a warm welcome from me. A number of us are self taught, me included, and all of us would say, DON'T. However if you do go that route the sense of achievement is beyond words, it's the best fun anyone can ever have on their own!
The advice on RTF is good, I started with a FunCub, not RTF, a bit of building is required but when you've finished it's yours! And as someone else has advised, it's a good flyer.
Good starting models for me would include Cessna Bird dog, Piper Cub, DeHaviland Beaver and (this is where I'm going to get shot down) a Westland Lysander. Although the Lysanders tapered wings might get you into difficulties.
Books, Carlos Reyes writes a good book. I can recommend ModiFly which talks you through the making of an easy fly in Foam board (Architects board), his book 'Model Airplane Design made easy' is perfect if you want to dig deeper. You also can't go wrong with anything by Martin Simons or Kelvin Shacklock.

ChesterDavid wrote:
I had not considered engine type as most boats are electric powered. I suspect I would start with electric power but is this something you need to decide at the start or can it wait until the build is well on? Also do aircraft use different motors, for example lighter. Same comment with batteries I suppose.

I will also look out for the local flying club and see if I can attend one of their meeting but it will have to be after lockdown.

One last thing regarding buying books. As getting to a decent bookshop is difficult at the moment has anyone any suggestions as I will need to buy from the internet. It is useful to have the internet but it is impossible to judge the quality without the book in your hands. A couple of years ago I bought a book on garden birds from a well known internet company only to find it was for American birds. There are not many Carolina Chickadees in Chester le Street.

Your choice is IC or Electric, the problem being that new IC are very, very limited, personally, I'm quite happy buying used IC engines rather than electric but it's very much horses-for-courses. You do really need to decide what power you want at the start as there are differences to the build, although they are not irreversible if you change your mind, if you are set up for electric boats then you are halfway there already although I'm guessing that you will need to upgrade your batteries which is not cheap. The vast majority of trainer models for IC are in the .40 size bracket (6.5cc).
As for books, all mine are very old and not updated for modern learners so I cannot advise there, I tend to use youtube for demos and techniques as it's very good, any questions raised from there I direct this forum.

A bit late to the party, but a warm welcome from me as well. I will not add to the advice, suffice to say you are already in safe hands.

crash happy wrote: A bit late to the party, but a warm welcome from me as well. I will not add to the advice, suffice to say you are already in safe hands.

Actually Crash, as a self taught flyer your advise would be excellent.