Had a guy show up at dusk last saturday at the field, right before I was getting ready to land and call it a day. He had just been to a local hobby shop and purchased an ARF trainer that was all setup and ready to go. All he had to do was add fuel and fly. It was a pretty good size trainer with an MDS .40 engine on it, came complete with a JR radio and components. I believe this guy woulda' went ahead and flew/crashed this plane had myself or one of the other members not been at the field. This guy was not an AMA member nor had the local hobby shop (Riders) told him anything about the AMA. He just happened to know the guy that owns the property that our field is located on and had asked the land owner if he could fly his new plane there. The land owner had told him it was ok. This guy was adament about flying this plane that night. He started it up all by himself. He put on 4 rubberbands (all that he had with him) and asked me if that was enough. I told him I usually use 8 rubberbands. He then started to taxi it out to the runway. He asked me how you normally take a plane off. If you stand on the middle of the runway and take it off or what. I said "Hang on a minute, let's check a few things out". We proceeded to do a range check and I briefly explained how the radio worked. I told him several times, "It is not as easy as it looks. You will crash without assistance". He got ready to taxi it out again and I stopped him and asked him if I could fly it for him this first time and he said yes. I took it off and quickly noticed how sluggish it felt compared to my trainer. It was definetly underpowered and there was very little throw on the ailerons. I like to never got the thing to turn. I took it on around and then setup for a landing and killed it, but it was already coming in nice and it glided real well. It landed just fine not far from us. So, if nothing else, he did get to see his new plane fly and he got to take it home as pretty as when he brought it out.

This is the second person now that I have seen come out and attempt to start flying all by themselves. The other person got some "sort of " teaching from another beginner at the club. He has since left a plane in the beans, left a plane in the trees and currently has a plane lost in the woods about 2000' from the flying field. There is this perception that flying RC is really simple to do. The only thing simple is how easily you can turn an investment into a pile of trash in about 3 seconds, especially when all you have to go by is a 20 page ARF manual. It is also interesting to see that the hobby shop didn't tell the guy anything about the AMA or about any of the local RC clubs.

Hopefully this guy will take my advise and look at the AMA website, register with them (using the form I gave him or downloading a form off the internet) and join our club and be taught to fly RC by a certified instructor.

Jon

It's a good thing Jon was there to help this guy. Being a self taught pilot myself,I would NOT recommend to do it like that. Back in 1988 When I first tried RC,days I don't really count in my RC experiences, I built and crashed 5 planes in about 2 months time. I quit because of discouragement and the big expense. I did,however,teach myself how to flya few years later. But is so much easier when you have geat people like the ones at our club to teach you.

Also to say,Eventhough I have been flying almost 8 years and just joined the club this year, I have already learned a great deal more than I ever new before.

I'm new to this (July 2001 soloed Aug 2001) I would definatly recommend against trying to teach yourself to fly. I am far from an expert, but I know I couldn't have done it on my own....

This is a truly great hobby and everyone I met at the field or through the posting boards has been more than willing to help however they can.

Keep up the good work...:D

Here's my first build...

Now im not saying I taught my self here, so dont get me wrong, but.....
When I was first starting out I bought an old 2 channel motor glider from a friend of mine to learn to fly with. My flight 'lesson' (thats right, singular) consisted of him checking the plane out to make sure it was airworthy, getting it up to altitude and letting me take over for the glide back down and landing. He stood by for the first few flights but then made an excuse to leave and I was on my own. I had been practicing on that fms sim and I have been driving r/c boats and cars since I was in diapers which gave me somewhat of an advantage I guess (keeping the controls straight in my head) But I do have to agree that no ordinary joe can go out an buy him or herself an ARF and fly it successfully the first time (had a friend try that once with .60.....ouch)