GETTING STARTED
If you have 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 you should talk to the instructors at the club. As you will be asking for our help to train you, you should buy something we will be comfortable assisting you with. It should have predicable flight characteristics, should stall gently and be easy to recover.
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.
A high wing trainer is a good starter plane designed to cope with the bumps and bruises of less than perfect landings. They will most likely be made from a type of expanded foam which is easy to repair with polystyrene glue.
A ‘pusher prop’ trainer plane has the propeller mounted above the body facing backwards. Often these have no undercarriage and can be landed on their belly so easily damaged bits like motor and propeller are out of harms way.
Some trainer planes have flight stability modes in the
model's receiver. This can help you from loosing control of
your aircraft and often incorporates a 'panic recovery' button to level your aircraft in an emergency.
These flight systems can be useful but 'safe' modes may
restrict your growth as a pilot if you rely too much on these systems. A
well set-up trainer plane without these features should be enough if
you receive some helpful tuition.
If you need training then don’t buy a transmitter that we’re unfamiliar with or we may be unable to help you.
We should be able to connect to Spectrum & FRSky transmitters. Other brands may be more problematic. Please check with us first before committing to any expenditure. If your equipment is incompatible with ours you may have to invest in a second transmitter so we can use that one as a buddy box.
TRAINING
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 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.
Sometimes instructors will be flying their own aircraft and at such times may 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 might be a 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.
We are open to junior members and if they have an ‘A Certificate’ they can fly at our sites with their parent (or guardian) and another club member on site.
We offer training if needed but arranging it can conflict with school and after school activities.
As rc flying requires regular practice you might have to consider which activities to prioritise.
Parents (guardians) will also need to invest some time supervising their child as batteries need to be handled with care and propellers can be quite dangerous.
This consists of an instructor linking their transmitter to yours via a lead to 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.
Nothing can replace the real world flying experience but a simulator can be a useful additional tool to have. It can help familiarise you with your TX controls and help you become more accustomed to controlling the aircraft in different orientations such as when flying towards yourself. You can also practice with different weather conditions.
PCs are well catered for with RealFlight. Phoenix RC has been discontinued but can still be found on Ebay. AeroflyRC is available for Mac and there is donation-ware like FS One and PicaSim which is available on multiple devices including tablet.
Drones and helicopters are allowed at our sites but our club instructors offer assistance with fixed-wing aircraft and we do not currently have any instructors for helicopters or drones. Some of our members do fly these aircraft and may be able to offer some limited assisiance and advice but not any regular training.
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.