Just started my G2 sim and I have crashed and lost sight of that plane so many time and so many ways. Just think they say the sims are easier!! For you gents that had to learn with out a flight sim. My hat is off to you and you have my respect. I would have been in the thousands of dollars of damages with the crashes. Gotta go I just can't land this darn thing!!!

I have been flying RC since 1979. I was lucky to meet a couple of guys that took the time to teach me to fly. I could not have done it without some help. I did learn to fly with one plane but it looked pretty bad by the time I could land it by myself. Back then there were no trainer cords and buddy boxes, the instructor had to yank the xmitter out of my hands several times. I have tried to use or get interested in Sims but once you get it in the air there is no reference as to where you are in relation to the strip or flight line. One good thing that does come out of them is getting used to flying the plane toward you.
my 2 centavos

I learned to fly in the early 70s, and yep, also swapped the transmitter back and forth with my instructor. I got around the plane coming toward me deal by turning my back to the approaching plane, and looking back over my shoulder at the plane (sounds funny, but it worked!). Another tool I used was sitting at the dining room table, eyes closed, transmitter in hand, "dry flying" my plane (that also helped a lot!). I bought a Peterbilt, went trucking in 1975, and quit the hobby. 22 years later, I returned to find buddy boxes, flight sims, etc! Evidence that I'm "old school" is that I fly mode 1 (throttle and aileron on the right stick) and when I returned to the hobby, no one could help me. I bought a Dave Brown flight sim switched it to mode 1 and knocked off 22 years of rust, so that my first flight after the hiatus was a successful solo flight (I'd bought an Ultra Sport ARF pattern ship).

My experience with flight sims is a bit more positive. All flight sims suffer the limitation that if you fly above the horizon, orientation becomes difficult. My solution is to fly lower so that the horizon is always in view. I've got Real Flight G2, and use it often to hone my aerobatic skills If you visit my site and play the video clip of the three turn rolling circle with alternating inside and outside rolls, you'll see one of the manuevers I learned on the sim, before trying it with my plane. A good flight sim like Real Flight (all sims are NOT created equal) can be an excellent tool not only for beginners, but for advanced flyers too.

I learned out to fly by myself, but I did have several years of flight sim experience to actually help me out. What I find with r/c planes is, eye-hand coordination is a must. If you do not have good eye-hand coordination, your going to have a harder time flying. Last month (January) I decided to try r/c flying again, back about 6 years I tried flying, no luck. I crashed the plane, but this is the bad part, I cut the engine upon my mothers hand launch (real swift eh?) and it did some damage. Well after that I put the plane away, took my engine off and went back to r/c boats. Well this winter has really sucked as far as snow goes so I decided to get back into it. I bought a sturdy birdy arf and went to work building it, took me several nights and finally got it finished. The day of flight was here, time to give it a shot. Once again, had my mother hand launch it, it was flying, I could not beleive it. Flew it around, towards me then around again. When I was coming around for the second time I throttled down, this was a big mistake, I lost speed on the turn and almost slamed into the hay rake. I missed it, and hit the barbed wire fence. Didn't do much damage, lost a prop, and cut some notches in the wing. I repaired it and flew again, second flight off the ground, no hand launch. Because I was using a different prop, it didn't have the same amount of push, the climb was not good. It stalled and crashed, well the 3rd time was the gem, well yes if you like crashing. The 2nd flight caused the 3rd to not go well. Basically I failed on it, and was quite discouraged, well for a day. I decided to take a plane I had in the attic that was my cousins out. I made servo mounts, did some cutting, and put the elevator and rudder back in. Got everything working, engine on, and it was not test day. Took it out, hand it hand launched, it flew, and it flew, and im shaking, lakes are shaking, heart is racing. Then I had to land it, well thats not so hard, well the first approach almost got me a crash, but the second was perfect, landed and no damage. Now im up to 20 flights with that plane and its great. Just recently went to a low wing aerobatic plane, called the shadow. That is extremely fun, first flight did a roll, and the others ive been honing my skills. Landings aren't pefect, but in a 10 acre field, no need to be perfect.

I learned how to fly allll by myself, no instructor, im funny about that. If someone tries teaching me, like r/c planes, I won't learn. But when I went flying for the first time, while flying towards me, I didn't think which way was right, or left, it just came to me. This I think was the result of flying in flight sims and looking at the plane. But as I said in the beginning of the post, its allll eye-hand coordination and the understanding of how a plane works..


Jeff

P.S. the flight sims were either combat flight sims, or good old microsoft flight sim.

When I started flying a few years ago I found that the flight sim really helped for getting to know when the plane was getting too far away from me. I would have the sim saying "your plane has flown away". I finally got to recognoize that the plane was getting too small and would turn the plane back to me. That part really helped me for the real R/C flying. The rest is quite a bit different so didn't help that much.:D

I tuaght myself how to fly and did not have the advantage of a flight sim. But with crashing 5 in a row in two months,I surely could have afforded one.

I learned a couple years ago using the pass the xmitter routine.
never did have a crash , but i thought there was gonna be a few !!!! :rolleyes: (I had a airtronics radio, none of the instructors did)
I soloed on my first gallon of fuel , not very hard , the trick of turning your back to the plane when it is coming at you worked for me also. I had been into r/c cars for quite awhile and that did not help me a bit on reverse controlling. (It did help me on the ground though, also helped with engine tuning). My instructor had been into modelling for over 40 years was patient and had all the answers I needed.... I hope I can do the same for new modeller myself some day. (only thing he did not tell me was that these things are more addictive than cocaine :D) I now have a pretty good size hangar that seems to constantly change am starting to get into 3-D. Just does not get any better than this!!!
John

I just started this sport a year ago. I haven't used a flight sim nor
want to. The most important thing that I have done/do is LISTEN
to the "Ol Timers" very carefully. They've been there/done that/flown that. It would be an understatement if I said that I respected them for their RC knowledge. Most of these men have served our country (most as pilots) - and that my friends states it all.
I haven't crashed a plane yet with the exception of my trainer for some guy was using the same freq. and lost control of my bird. But another lesson learned (once "hit", twice shy). I also do a heck of a lot of reading.