Lee Burke

The Realflight G4 sim (maybe the previous ones too) allows you to set the zoom so that the ground is always in sight; that helps enourmously in setting up for landing, but its still very difficult i find to know when you are lined up okay and not too close or too far away.  Its easy to fly into trees and things since there is little real sense of depth.  But I have no problem with the graphics.  Like you say, Birdy, its hard to fight off the indiference with which one can treat crashes.  Bad Habit 

As an almost complete begginer  I was tempted back by an open day at a nearby club I happened upon.  I promptly joined, but bad weather kept the club empty for the first couple of weeks and in the meantime I decided on a begginer's plane (Easy Star) after researching the web.  My LHS owner was very helpful and the model is, of course, simple to assemble.  I have decided to go straight to electric flight though the club trainer is IC.  It took a while to get to grips with BECs and LiPol and Controllers and all the myriad acronyms.  (Ongoing process).  Their meanings as obscure as their function.  I was greatly assisted by the Begginer's threads here, but even so . . .  Battery types and methods of charging, exploding accu's etc take a bit of digesting.   All seems so straightforward, right?  Well, it sure isn't when first come on it.  .  All this info I had hoped to get from my club butsomehow it didn't work like that.  When I went there I could only stand around like dummy as those "in the know" got on with preping their models.    Flight tutoring was only held on two days a week and I was unlucky with the weather for a while.  If you haven't got a friend already involved who shows you the ropes its a bit awkward at first , you don't know anyone and you can't fly and you don't really know what questions to ask.  My choice of Tx was made after trawling the net and the forums but I made sure that a 2.4Ghz was okay with them before I bought it.  Before my first lesson I had a good few hours on a sim and I found the reality, if anything a bit easier than the sim with its lack of depth perception.  But the sim is definately the way to go for newbies.  I have a cable to connect my Tx to the sim but I think I will buy a dedicated controller sometime soon as  constanly charging the Tx batteries just for the sim and plugging the thing in doesn't seem like a good idea.

The Loc8tor is a great gadget, Richard.  I could use one of those for a dozen things I a always mislaying.  Shame its so pricey  The dedicated section sounds a good idea to me.

Hey Mike, that looks good.  Doesn't look beyond even my ham-fisted abilities, though it could well be.  Just got to find somewhere to get the componants.  Now where was that Google button again?

Yup, or rather, Yes please, Sir.

Interesting stuff, Mike.  Say Hi to Wagga Wagga for me, never been there but I knew a young tennis proffessional from there back in the seventies.  Yup, you are right to envy us Duxford and The Shuttleworth collection.  This last should be the focus of a pilgrimage by any aviation enthusiast.  The Duxford show and its museum are not to be sneezed either, as you pointed out.  As to envying Britain its pica chips thats another thing altogether. The info on putting together Lost Model Finder will be read with interst by many, I expect.  I look forward to seeing the schematic to discover if I can figure it out

Thanks Mike, that sounds great.   

Good one , Lawnski  I just found a beeper that can be used with the fail-safe option http://wingedshadow.com/rcrprod.html  Of course, as Timbo says, if the battery has become disconected then you need sniffer dogs anyway. 

I guess that's so, Timbo.  Thanks for your input.  It seems a shame not use the technology.  There is a lot of rough ground near me, if i go down there it might be a future archaeologist who finds the machine.  Good to leave something for the coming generations, I know ,but stll.

I was considering installing one of those Lost Model beepers, but understand it will not work as long as I have the Fail Safe option activated.  It doesn't sound like a good idea to turn that off.  What do think?

I too live in France and my club was pleased when I turned up with 2,4Ghz.

OK, thanks for the info.  I'll get myself a leisure battery.  Seems a worthwhile expense - I wasn't too keen on ending up having to push my car to start it 

It seems that bird didn't consider you a Pheasent Plucker

When you need to charge, say a lipo, at your flying site do you guys just hook the charger up to your car battery or do you have a dedicated 12v in the boot?  If its a dedicated one, is it just a starter battery or is it a slow discharge marine type battery? And whichever one you hook up to how thick are your extension leads?

Sorry, Fellas, this one's mine.

Similar but in an aviation context there is a good one here http://www.b737.org.uk/nicolasdrawing.jpg  (PG rating)

 All the Federation Francaise d’ Aeromodelisme French (FFAM) clubs may be found at this site http://www.ffam.asso.fr/ct_guides.htm listed under their regional committees.  Just click on the area you intend to visit for a list of the clubs there.

Thanks for that info, Alistair.  Er, where do I hold the cup?

I have a sim and there are a couple of clubs not too far away by so I will join one of them and get some help on a Buddy Box.   Thanks for all your help.

Thanks for the info on the servos, Guys.  Yes, thanks, David the system works fine now.  Soon be able to take it out for its Maiden Crash   But I'll wait unitl I have someone more experienced to hand to show how best to this. 

Thanks for your replies, guys.  The Rx was not tied to the Tx.   I bought them together and the manual says,"For a T/R set the linking is already done at the factory."  Well it wansn't.  Actually, I did try to link them last night but was damned if I could find the ID SET button.  (I hear you laughing in the background - or is that a sigh of exasperation?) .  Anyway I looked at magnified picture of the receiver on Futaba's web site and finally found the ID SET button.  I guess I need more powerfull glasses .  I was quite worried that I had missconnected something and burnt out the Rx.  Is that possible?  Well anything is possible, I guess, but is it likely?  The plugs are so small and not keyed it would be an easy mistake.  As to the wiring on the Hitech HS81, it is yellow, red, black.  I guess if I reverse them by mistake the servo just works backwards, right?

Okay, strict newbie mode.  So, I have a Futaba 6EX 2.4 and an Easy Star.  Two Hitech servos.  A Lipol 3S 2400 Ah and a controller on the standard motor.  So the helpful guy in the shop has soldered the motor to the controller and tells me the plug from the controller goes now onto the third (throttle) socket on the Futaba Rx.  Okay.  I get home and remember he said the brown wire goes to the outside of the Rx.  OK.  I plug in the accu and turn on theTX and then the reciever .  The led on the Rx flashes green and then red.  The throttle does not move the motor.  Hmm.  I plug in a servo - just to see.  Which way round?  They are not keyed..  What the?  Anyway I try it out both ways.  No reaction when I wiggle the Tx levers.  Ah, heck, how can something so simple be so difficult.  Singing the Newbie Blues.

Thanks for the lead to the easyglider, Timbo.  I think I will put in some serious time on a simulator before moving into the real world.  I just bought a Futuba 6ex 2.4 and will digest the cost of that before moving on.  Also there are a couple of clubs near me too that i want to check out.  I go along with Dave on his memories of getting high on the smell of dope.  I guess we were the prototype glue sniffers 

Hi, Guys.  thanks for the welcome.  Choice of beginer's models seems to have been pretty well covered in this forum and the choice seems to be the Easy Star.  That's good, but I realy would like something of that kind but with ailerons.  What's the best bet in your eyes?

At least i hope its never too late to learn.  I'm a retiree looking to get into electric r/c.    Made a few balsa kits when I was kid but not done so since.  How much has changed!  I like the advent of the electric motors and even the ARTF kits although i guess that takes some of the fun out of it.  Still,reduces the heartbreak of those first crashes - untill you get inured to it.  Do you? Anyway, I'd like to thank the crew around this forum who have spent so much time sharing knowledge and experience to all and sundry.  Invaluable and greatly appreciated. Regards Lee