NEW TO FLYING

GETTING STARTED

If you try a sample flight on one of our trainer airplanes we will provide all the equipment needed. Once you join our club you will need to buy your own aircraft and transmitter.

Before you commit to buying your own aircraft we strongly urge you talk to the instructors at the club. As you will be asking for our help to train you, you should buy something our instructors will be comfortable assisting you with. It needn’t be particularly quick and should have predicable flight characteristics. It should stall gently and be easy to recover. It should be easy to see. A black stealth plane will quickly have you and us loosing orientation.

Your aircraft should be large enough to see at altitude. We will generally be flying quite high up when we start so as to have a chance of recovering the aircraft should the trainee make a mistake and it should have sufficient weight to cope with occasional windy conditions.

Buying something that doesn't have spare parts easily available will be a mistake as you will eventually break something. There are a number of aircraft types that are suitable for trainees but only buy after you’ve met club members and had a discussion about what would be best for you.

Which planes to consider?
A high wing trainer is usually considered a good starter plane.

They are designed to cope with the bumps and bruises of some less than perfect landings. They will most likely be made from a type of expanded foam (foamies) which are particularly easy to repair with glue.

A ‘pusher’ trainer plane has the propeller mounted above the body facing backwards. These often dispense with an undercarriage and can be landed on their belly. Easily damaged bits like engine and propeller are out of harms way should you not land perfectly.

Flight assistance
Some trainer planes have flight-assisted stability modes which help protect beginner pilots from crashing. These systems will try to prevent you from loosing control of your aircraft by reducing the input from your transmitter. They can be useful but ‘safe’ modes may restrict your growth as a pilot if you rely on them too too much.



Mini Apprentice is a high wing trainer with flight assistance and easy to steer tricycle style undercarriage.		Bixler is a high wing trainer with a pusher prop but no undercarriage to damage in a bad landing.

Transmitters
If you need training then don't buy a transmitter that we're unfamiliar with. You may need assistance in setting up your aircraft to work correctly with your transmitter but if it's something we don't have much experience of we may be unable to help you.

We usually assist new flyers using dual connected transmitters (the buddy box system) so it's important that your transmitter will work with ours. If it does not you will be asked to buy a second transmitter so we can use it as a buddy box.

Training
You can learn to fly without joining a club. But if you decide not to join a club be sure to pay the CAA drone licence fee if you have a qualifying aircraft and get BMFA membership which will also give you insurance cover in case of accidents. You will be expected to do this if you join a club but you will also get a space to fly in that is likely to be safer and you will have the benefit of fellow members looking out for you.Their advice should also make the learning process quicker. They will encourage you when things aren’t going well and should make it a much more enjoyable experience. Also finding a place that you are legally allowed to fly is becoming harder outside of a club.

We have club instructors who will assist with training. Training will include teaching you about safety, site rules, general flying rules and the basics of RC flying. Members who help with tuition will be giving up their own time and most likely sharing their own equipment with you so you will need to check their availability and not assume they can help at short notice. A few days notice will usually be required. We ask that if a member offers to help you that you do turn up for training sessions and notify us in good time if you have to cancel. Some days our instructors will be out flying their own aircraft and at such times will be unlikely to offer a training session to a trainee who turns up on the day unless it has been prearranged.

Some trainees pick things up quickly but quite often trainees find it takes a little while to master the basics of rc flying. Initially it can be a rather frustrating pursuit but dedicating time for regular practice will make all the difference.

We sometimes have to manage the number of trainees we can have in the club at any one time as we do have a limited number of instructors.

Junior members
We are open to junior members but as with adult trainees, we may sometimes be restricted as to how many youngsters we can provide training for. In regard to parents who may not entirely share their child's interest in this hobby there will likely be some need for them to offer assistance in learning how various bits of equipment works. They will also need to supervise their child particularly when charging and discharging batteries, provide a safe place to store batteries and protect a child from misadventures with dangerous propellers.

The buddy box system
This is an important tool we use for training and consists of an instructor linking their TX to yours via its trainer port (or wirelessly). This allows one of our club instructor's to take charge of the more complicated aspects of your aircraft's flight so you can familiarise yourself with the controls and get valuable flying time. Initially the instructor will take care of taking off and landing the aircraft and the pupil will be guided how to fly circuits, how to maintain a consistent altitude, aligning the aircraft for a landing approach and each of the various elements of a successful flight.

Simulators
Pilots traditionally have learnt to fly by going to a flying site and putting in a lot of practise. There is nothing that can replace real flying experience but a simulator can be a useful additional tool to have.

Multi rotors - drones & helicopters
These are allowed at our sites and if you are an experienced flyer we can accommodate you but currently we do not have much capacity for training a novice.

Contact us and let us know what exactly what you wish to fly and what if anything you have flown to date and we will see how we can help you.


		CMFC is afiliated with The BMFC Chingford Model Flying Club No. 55 All content © Chingford Model Flying Club