A newbie trying to save some money

[Christopher Morris 2]

Posted by Paul Marsh on 27/09/2019 10:56:51:

As I asked earlier, whereabouts in the country do you live? Swap Meet season is coming up, and bought this, for £1 inc engine, servos (had 35mhz Futaba rx but took it out). The rx, I bought for it was £5, Tactic rx, and battery/switch, so just over £10 a complete airframe,.

Also bought this for £10 with futaba 2.4 rx, battery, just needed 2 more servos and that's another bargain!

Ah! well done. Swap meet, i see the club i am looking to join has one about 1 mile from me. King’s Lynn Aero Model Club Swap meet on 27th October 2019. Will pop that on the calendar.

[Denis Watkins]

Posted by Chris Walby on 27/09/2019 09:19:17:

.... do people have a thing against mode 3 and 4? Can and does anyone fly these modes?

 

An old lad at my club flys mode 3 Chris

Simply put, he was a mode 2 flyer, but lost a lot of use of his right hand

So he tells me now he still has mode 2 axis in his head, flown with his left hand ! !

Confuses the heck out of me, but bit works a treat.

Also a quick true story

A guy joined our club after flying for years on his own mode 2 he thought, and he flew well too.

Yet his throttle and elevator stick had always been reversed and he learned this way

 

 

Edited By Denis Watkins on 27/09/2019 11:46:01

[David Davis]

Posted by Chris Walby on 27/09/2019 09:19:17:

.... do people have a thing against mode 3 and 4? Can and does anyone fly these modes?

I know of another expat Englishman in France who uses one of these modes on the grounds that he is left-handed. That said he has not yet learned to fly competently.

[kc]

Obviously one should learn the same Mode as your club and instructor. This means any member could grab your Tx in an emergency etc, but it also means you might get invited to have a go with someone elses model when you are good enough. This is very useful for experience.

It is interesting that Mode 1 always uses both hands while Mode 2 fliers can sometimes use one hand only if they want ( elevator & ailerons being the controls used almost all the time on fast models)

If the experts who consider that different sides of the brain operate left hand and right hands are correct then it may be easier and theoretically better to fly Mode 1 because its using both sides of the brain!

[Christopher Morris 2]

Hi, what is your mode & the majority of your club or friends preferences ?.

Posted by kc on 28/09/2019 16:44:15:

Obviously one should learn the same Mode as your club and instructor. This means any member could grab your Tx in an emergency etc, but it also means you might get invited to have a go with someone elses model when you are good enough. This is very useful for experience.

It is interesting that Mode 1 always uses both hands while Mode 2 fliers can sometimes use one hand only if they want ( elevator & ailerons being the controls used almost all the time on fast models)

If the experts who consider that different sides of the brain operate left hand and right hands are correct then it may be easier and theoretically better to fly Mode 1 because its using both sides of the brain!

[kc]

I am a Mode 1 pilot because that was the mode at my local clubs and I flew there for 24 years. When I moved house and joined the local club I found it was Mode 2 except for one other person. Obviously I wouldn't change my way of flying so thats the way it is Mode 1 flier in a Mode 2 club.

However 1 incident illustrates the problem. I was at the field with just one other member who was flying his biplane - suddenly his phone rang and he said " take it will you " I was expecting to be handed his mobile phone and was busy thinking ' should I say to the caller "hold on a moment he is flying his toy plane " or is it better to say " he' s driving hold on" when he thrust the Transmitter in my hands not the phone! As you can guess he was a Mode 2 pilot and I was caught somewhat unaware! My instinct was to close the throttle a bit - but of course thats UP elevator on his mode and entirely wrong which made me realise instantly it was the wrong mode.  Steering around the sky is the same so I just managed to overcome my instincts and do the opposite to normal with throttle and elevator for long enough to give it back to him when he finished his phone call! The model - a Puppeteer - slow flying and easy to fly lived to fly another day!

So I have good reason to say fly your clubs mode. Having said that there are those who can fly both modes well. But I wouldnt try it again except in an emergency - reason is instinct saves your model when things go wrong.

Edited By kc on 28/09/2019 18:05:27

[fly boy3]

Hi Chris, re mode 1 and mode 2. As a club we have been historically mode 1, a few members have joined and fly mode 2, no probs. The problem arises when a newby arrives all stocked up with mode 2 stuff wanting to learn how to fly, and perhaps the only mode 2 guy is not at the field. I think at the moment we are over 90% mode 1, so he would definitely have a better chance of getting time on the sticks if he decided to go with the majority mode of the club he joins. Cheers ps, kc,s comment also brings another problem to light that I had not realised.

Edited By fly boy3 on 28/09/2019 18:51:38

[David Davis]

Posted by kc on 28/09/2019 17:58:00:

I am a Mode 1 pilot because that was the mode at my local clubs and I flew there for 24 years. When I moved house and joined the local club I found it was Mode 2 except for one other person. Obviously I wouldn't change my way of flying so thats the way it is Mode 1 flier in a Mode 2 club.

However 1 incident illustrates the problem. I was at the field with just one other member who was flying his biplane - suddenly his phone rang and he said " take it will you " I was expecting to be handed his mobile phone and was busy thinking ' should I say to the caller "hold on a moment he is flying his toy plane " or is it better to say " he' s driving hold on" when he thrust the Transmitter in my hands not the phone! As you can guess he was a Mode 2 pilot and I was caught somewhat unaware! My instinct was to close the throttle a bit - but of course thats UP elevator on his mode and entirely wrong which made me realise instantly it was the wrong mode. Steering around the sky is the same so I just managed to overcome my instincts and do the opposite to normal with throttle and elevator for long enough to give it back to him when he finished his phone call! The model - a Puppeteer - slow flying and easy to fly lived to fly another day!

So I have good reason to say fly your clubs mode. Having said that there are those who can fly both modes well. But I wouldnt try it again except in an emergency - reason is instinct saves your model when things go wrong.

Edited By kc on 28/09/2019 18:05:27

 

I had the opposite experience about ten years ago when I was still living in England.

I turned up and there was this new bloke standing around. He had a smart WOT 4 Mark 3 and Futaba Mode 2 equipment. I introduced myself and he said that he had flown in the 1980's but would like someone to test fly his model for him first. I agreed and he started his Thunder Tiger Pro 46 by hand. I took off and the model flew perfectly. I handed him the transmitter and he flew well enough but lost height on each circuit. I asked for the transmitter back and regained altitude before I handed back the transmitter to him. After two further repititions I said, "Did you used to fly Mode 1?" When he replied in the affirmative I landed, found a basic Futaba four channel transmitter in the club's Boot Hill Corner, and sought out a competent Mode 1 instructor and he never looked back.

I understand that he became the club's treasurer eventually.

 

Edited By David Davis on 28/09/2019 19:45:58

[Christopher Morris 2]

Its interesting to hear that other countries around the world are promptly one or the other, but not the same. I wonder if its anything in the UK mind to do with a cars throttle is on the right & a motorbike the same. Is there a more instinctive side to have it for most? IE: most are right handed, & it may suit a person like this. It would of been interesting to see how my late father would of dealt with this being 90% ambidextrous. It was strange to watch that he could write with both hands. "Not at the same time" 

Edited By Christopher Morris 2 on 29/09/2019 06:00:14

[Frank Skilbeck]

Er even on cars and motorbikes in countries that drive on the right use their right foot/hand to operate the throttle.

From what I understand is that mode 1 is a natural follow on from reed radios where the controls were all operated by switches then 2 channel proportional radios which had separate sticks. Since then it all depended on who taught you to fly.

[Christopher Morris 2]

Posted by Frank Skilbeck on 28/09/2019 22:14:03:

Er even on cars and motorbikes in countries that drive on the right use their right foot/hand to operate the throttle.

From what I understand is that mode 1 is a natural follow on from reed radios where the controls were all operated by switches then 2 channel proportional radios which had separate sticks. Since then it all depended on who taught you to fly.

Ah! Didn't word of paragraph that correctly. 9:30 was getting near bed time.

[Peter Miller]

We have one Mode 1 flier in our club, the rest of us are Mode 2. Pity because he can't fly our models and we can't fly his...although he may be happy about that!!

[David Davis]

Whether a club flies Mode 1 or Mode 2 is largely an accident of history. I believe I'm right in saying that clubs to the east of London in the Sixties when affordable proportional gear first became available, mostly flew Mode 2 while clubs in the west London suburbs mostly flew Mode 1, but I don't know this for a fact so I'm prepared to be corrected.

I learned to fly as a member of a little club in North Devon where everyone was Mode 2. When I moved to Shropshire in the mid Nineties about 40% of the membership flew Mode 1. When I left we had three club trainersand four compatible transmitters, two Mode 1s and two Mode 2s. That way any combination could be accomodated .

[Cuban8]

Posted by Christopher Morris 2 on 29/09/2019 08:28:26:

Posted by Frank Skilbeck on 28/09/2019 22:14:03:

Er even on cars and motorbikes in countries that drive on the right use their right foot/hand to operate the throttle.

From what I understand is that mode 1 is a natural follow on from reed radios where the controls were all operated by switches then 2 channel proportional radios which had separate sticks. Since then it all depended on who taught you to fly.

Ah! Didn't word of paragraph that correctly. 9:30 was getting near bed time.

I don't think there's any 'one size fits all' explanation for mode 1 and mode 2 preference. The reed radio layout is true and some early beginners' two channel sets like the Futaba Medallion came with a two channel, two stick arrangement as standard - IIRC they also did a three channel outfit with a side slider. If you got into gliders at an early stage, you'd only really need two channels back in the day and they'd usually be on two sticks. This tended to carry through to a four channel set as you progressed - hence the preference for mode 1 with glider flyers at the time. Is it still the same now?

As a mode 1 flyer the odd thing is that I can fly a model quite happily on the left stick only (R&E) if I need to use my right hand to adjust my glasses or scratch my nose. I have had a mode 2 tranny passed to me when a chap didn't feel well, I doubt if I could land the model safely, but just by setting the throttle to 1/3 and then only using my right hand to fly circuits (left thumb kept off the throttle stick ) I maintained the model until a mode 2 flyer took over.