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

Hello all,
I'm from the US and have been in the hobby/sport of RC aeromodelling for around 50 years. My only purpose in the hobby/sport right now is to give hands-on promotional RC airplane flights for the public. I usually don't take no for an answer when I strongly suggest that someone fly my LT-40 trainer. You see, at one time, I used the buddy-box for training, and before that, it was the pass the box method.

On the day I switched from passing the transmitter was when one of my students got a bit confused and pushed the aileron stick the wrong way. The plane was close to taking a dirt nap, that I didn't have time to grab the transmitter, so I simply reached over and pulled the elevator to save the plane. That was close to the turning point from learning the training method I use now. With buddy-box attached, I was training someone else. He kept banging the sticks around like he was playing a video game. Turns out that's what he did in his spare time.
Everyone said that he would learn to fly RC planes much quicker because he was so good with his video games. See the problem here?

So still with cord attached and my holding the switch, I reached over and put my thumb and forefinger underneath his thumb on top the aileron control lever. It's called kinesthetic teaching. He was able to feel precisely how to move the stick. One other thing I learned was that the student doesn't really have to see what the plane is doing to fly very skillfully. For real. I was teaching a youngster and he was doing quite well, he followed my instructions and both of us was having a good time. Then my wife, who was watching, said that the youngster was indeed not looking at the plane, but just the transmitter. I guess he thought the tx was a monitor.

So from that experience, I use that method, full scale pilots call something like that flying under the hood. It works extremely well for smoothing out and helping improve the learning curve. I have trained a couple of fellow club members how to do this, but only spent around 15 minutes teaching this method, both times. Both said they learned quite a bit within those 15 minutes. I've got a couple of people coming to my area so I can demonstrate and teach them how to use this kinesthetic method. Funny thing, have no trouble getting people in the hobby and beginners love what I'm doing, but the same can't be said for the old hand. Can't figure that one out.

Yes, I've met that - they think that because they can fly their computer game sim, it is exactly the same with a real model, and after about three seconds they are so disoriented because there is no auto-zoom or model-tracking, without the buddy lead, they'd have a bag of bits to take home - if they could find them!
The real difficulty is - they turn up with their own radio gear, and a totally unsuitable model - in the UK, it is almost always a Spitfire, but I imagine in the States it is a Mustang - and no Instructor can have one of every type of radio on the market, all using unique buddy-leads and radio protocols!
So the Instructor (or the club) has to provide TWO radios, buddy lead, model, and miscellaneous, ie batteries or fuel AND spares/repairs - and then convince the pupil to use it, and not their own gear.
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Then there's the one who, when asked if they can see the model - says yes - when in reality their eyesight is so poor they are just seeing a blurry blob in the sky - because they spent years staring at a screen three feet from their nose.

Hi folks

I've just joined this forum. Been a long-time fan of RC - I used to fly IC models back in the late 1990s/early 2000s, then stopped for many years before getting back into it last year.

I picked up one of those little micro warbirds from Volantex/Eachine and have had a lot of fun flying them, both at the club and in the fields behind my property.

I'm currently putting together my first RC kit for about 20 years!

Welcome to the group, Daren.
Please read the how-to for adding pictures/photo's to the site, you missed a step so we can only see thumbnails.
Whereabouts in the world are you? (just a general location, not your home address!)

I'll check that out.

I'm near Edinburgh, in Scotland.

Michael here. Been messing about with models ( boats and aircraft) for more years than I care to remember. Sort of a lone flyer/lone boater type. Don't normally bother with clubs, although I have visited the odd one in the past. Nearing retirement these days, so looking forward to doing more of what I've always enjoyed!

Welcome
Nearing retirement eh?
I started collecting my stste pension 10 years ago but I am by no means the oldest.

Just 18 months or so to go before the state pension arrives, but took my personal pension several years ago due to less than perfect health. Still work the odd few hours a week, just to keep the joints moving, so to speak. Thanks for the welcome!

Welcome aboard Micheal! this place is fairly sparsely populated so anyone new is good news as far as Im concerned...What sort of things are you flying ( please say diesel vintage models!! I'm the resident oily weirdo!!)

Hi Paul
Thanks for the welcome! As much as would like to say diesel vintage models, I can't! Although I did used to fly a Keilkraft Ladybird with a Davis Charlton Spitfire diesel many moons ago. I have a partly built Ben Buckle Red Zephyr, which I keep going back to repeatedly. It will fly one day. Just in the last few years, some house renovation work has slowed down my building programme a lot more than I'd have liked. As a result I've dabbled with various foam ARTF models, mainly for a quicker fix. I've flown an E Flite Timber, an Arrows Models large Husky, a Multiplex Funray ( very nice, but costly ), and one or two various others. As mentioned in an earlier post, I'm all electric now, mainly because I don't want the faff of setting up engines, along with occasional temperamental running anymore!

Paul said 'please say diesel vintage models!! I'm the resident oily weirdo!!'
He's not the only one, however I swing both ways. I can't do FF, too many thorn trees. My landlord has a habit of cutting down thorn trees, then leaving them in the Veld to protect the new grass, it's a minefield out there.
Right now I'm doing not much, I had Shingles in March 2020 which we didn't catch in time before the blistering. The blisters have long gone but I still have the Post Herpetic Neuralgia which means I have the attention span of a goldfish!
A warm welcome from me, we're a small community, people come and go, a lot to the big strip in the sky. Should you have any issues (we're all a bit strange) please feel free to PM me and vent your spleen, I'm a good listener, don't just disappear without saying goodbye to me.
Swearing is allowed, flaming is not.

Retirement can sometimes be a killer, so is really important to have things to do, aeromodeling being a really good pastime as long as there is a slope/flying field/lake close by.

It's about time management, routine and self discipline.

Keep active mentally and physically.

Enjoy...

Yup, that's for sure, use it or lose it!

Rich
Quite a few years ago, I worked at quite an isolated location for a period. And while I was working there, the gentleman who lived in the rather large Victorian house just adjacent to where I working, had retired about a year previously. During the course of the day(s) I had noticed both him and his wife spending lots of time in their large garden, keeping it all in shape. I once asked him how retirement was. He replied "oh, it's ok, but you do have to work at it"........ P.S. He did add say afterwards that he hadn't really retired. He'd simply changed bosses.

Hi there Eric I have been in the building trade most of my life my man job was a carpenter and Joiner and Cabinet I made staircases and windows and the main work was for repairing all old buildings for the heritage in London and the National Trust and merchant bankers in London and years ago I was in a CB club and we did Charity work doing lorry poles and getting money and putting it back to other Charities My handle used to be Charlie Whippet and I have Q S L ALL OVER THE WORLD I did reach America one night from Wiltshire on a AM CB radio With 1000 W burner on the end of it I am now retired because of the arthritis in my knees but I do enjoy build building these planes And meeting new people on these sites is very very helpful