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Learning to fly

The Basics:

Learning to fly can be very rewarding. There are a couple of things that you need to consider to help you be successful quickly: The Plane, The Electronics and The Help.

The Plane:

Our Trainer Kits are designed to be easy to fly and durable. The have a motor that is mounted in the middle of the plane to protect it from crashes. The nose is just foam and will bounce off anything it hits. 

The Wing is designed to be easy to build and provides very stable performance. By not having ailerons the wing works hard to keep the plane right side up. The rudder is used to turn the plane but we recommend using the aileron stick to control it and that the rudder/wing design will roll the plane just as if it had ailerons. When you let go the plane will roll back level. 

The Foam is EPP (Expanded PolyPropolyene). This is the same plastic that cutting boards are made from. It is very durable and has the right combination of stiffness and flexibility. It also repairs very easy as it does not crumble. Take your glue to the field and if you do break a piece off you can glue it back and be flying again in minutes. 

The Electronics:

There are several components that are required to fly a plane. The Transmitter is the control box that you hold. The left stick controls throttle and rudder. The right stick controls elevator and rudder. For our trainer planes that have no ailerons, we suggest that you plug the rudder servo into the aileron channel so the right stick controls the rudder.
The receiver accepts the radio signals from the transmitter and then sends the signals to the motor controller and servos. The motor controller (ESC) takes power from the battery and the throttle signal from the receiver and then sends power to control the speed of the motor. It also supplies 5 volt power back to the receiver to power it and the servos. The servos take the control signal from the receiver and turns that into mechanical energy to move the rudder, elevator and ailerons.

The Help:

We do recommend that you try and work with a local RC pilot. They can be a great source of information and can help you with the setup. The Forums on RcGroups.com is a great source of information. I think that everyone of our planes has a discussion on the construction and there are other customers there who are willing to give advice. We also have a series of videos explaining how to build and fly your own trainer on Facebook and we are always happy to answer questions.

Additional Information:

GLUE - We sell and recommend Foam-Tac glue for building with EPP. You want a glue that remains flexible when building with a flexible foam. You will not likely find a suitable glue locally although there are options. Quick Grip is sometimes available locally. It does remain flexible but I feel it is harder to work with and not as strong. You can also build with Hot Glue but it is heavy and in a hot location (hot car) it can come apart.

RADIO - We sell a basic radio on our site. It has limited functionality but will get you flying and is inexpensive. If you are going to stay with the hobby you will probably want to get a better radio with more capability. A DX6 or DX8 would be a great radio to go with and would probably have any option that you would ever want.

RADIO FREQUENCY - In the past 72 megahertz was the standard. Today most everyone is using 2.4 gigahertz. With 2.4 we have little to no issue with interference between radios. The down side is that each brand has its own communication protocol. This means that you cannot use a transmitter and receiver from different brands. The protocalls are typically identified with 
acronyms such as DSM2, DSMX and FHSS. If your transmitter does not come with a receiver or you are wanting to buy an additional one, you need to make sure that the protocol matches. Typically by buying the same brand of equipment you will be ok. The 2.4 receivers we sell on our site are DSM2 protocol and works with Spektrum transmitters.