Part One: Learning to Fly!

Introduction

This is the first in a series of articles aimed at those of you looking at all
of these wonderful radio controller flying machines and fancy trying the
hobby.

There are a lot of common mistakes that a new trainee pilot can fall into
and Iʼll try to cover as many as I can in these articles so that, even if you
donʼt have a local R/C club or friend you can learn from, youʼll save
yourself a little time, money and hassle getting into the air. Youʼll also find
the learning process a little more fun too.
The cost of the radio control hobby has fallen dramatically over the past
few years. The increase in the products, volume, choice and
manufacturing in places like China has all resulted in a far more
accessible hobby.

When I started to fly, radios cost the best part of £300 and the models
were about the same. Equipment was considered an investment and
something you expected to use for many years (or that is how you
justified the expense to those who asked!).

My first set of FPV goggles (FPV stands for First Person View and is
where you fly the model by looking at the image from a little camera
inside model – just like you were sat inside it) were over £200 and all of
this expense was for a hobby I wasnʼt sure I was going to stick with.

I often get asked how to get into the hobby and also end up helping
those whoʼve dipped their toes into the hobby but become frustrated and
fed-up by the whole thing.

Often that ‘sticky startʼ is due to a handful of common mistakes that new
pilots make when they donʼt have a handy R/C pal about to help them get
into the air safely and have a challenging but ultimately rewarding
‘leaning to flyʼ experience.

Flying is a skill. It takes time to master and many pilots (myself included)
can take a few years to really get to grips with how to fly well and then
lose themselves in the flying itself.

From looking at videos on places like YouTube youʼd be forgiven for

thinking that you can fly a model in a handful of minutes, but what you
donʼt see is the months and months of practice and failures.

Choosing the right model to learn to fly with is a huge part of starting out
successfully and most of the pilots I see annoyed by the hobby tried to
learn on a scale warbird like a Spitfire or T-28. Those models have scaled
down versions of aeroplanes that are designed to be fast, nimble,
respond quickly and aggressively. The smaller versions are designed to
have a lot of those tendencies calmed down somewhat but can still be a
handful so make for poor first choices for most.

The vast majority of new pilots can benefit from a ‘trainerʼ style model
that can take the abuse, crashes, mishaps and landings that a new pilot
will subject a model too. Once youʼve got the hang of a trainer and can
take off, perform the basics and land reliably then a more scale plane can
be closer to a reality.

Crashing is Learning

When learning to fly, youʼll crash. A lot.

Now if youʼre new to all this then I suspect that many of you will have
read that and thought to yourself ‘Not meʼ.

I did, back before I started to learn. I didnʼt know what was ahead so, not
aware of those gaps in my knowledge, made sweeping statements about
how easy it was going to be. All of those delusions evaporated pretty
quickly after the second and third crash and then I invested in the
simulator that Iʼd been told to get and use to practice.
Using that program on my computer (I used PhoenixRC for those that are
interested) to put some serious ‘time into the sticksʼ - as practice in my
flying friend's circle is called. I tried to learn from my mistakes and take
things easy – one step at a time. Youʼll have more fun if you relax and try
to set yourself goals in the simulator session but not beat yourself up if
you canʼt quite get it right, itʼll be cheaper in the long run as you develop
a muscle memory in a safe environment needed to make the model do
what you want it to when you try in the reality.
We will look at simulators that you can run on your computer and connect
the radio to in a later article but they are a fantastic way to help you learn
to fly. The models all come setup perfectly and they cost nothing to
‘repairʼ if you crash it (just hit the RESET button in the sim.).

Simulators canʼt replace the real world experience though. Learning how
to fly and being able to pull off loops and rolls in a computer program
isnʼt the same as doing it in real life. Your pulse rate will be at a much
higher level when you start to fly for real. Most pilots get a real ‘buzzʼ
from the early stages of flying practice even from the most basic of
flights, half from excitement and half for abject terror that something will
go wrong.

Those early ‘realʼ flying experiences will usually result in something

getting broken and thatʼs ok too.

Weʼve all been there. The trick, when you find yourself with a model in
more pieces that it started out, is to stop and think and consider what
you did wrong. Bad pilots blame the model, conditions, radio, wind, other
pilots, the runway, tide, traffic, astral alignment.. anything but accept they
screwed up. Sure, problems that you canʼt foresee do happen but 95% of
the problems can be avoided by better checks, more care when flying or
more experience. Did you not check that prop was on properly, did you
check the battery was fully charged, the centre of gravity in the right
place? Did you check the range of the radio in that new location before
taking off and did you perform a pre-flight check on the control
surfaces?

In almost all the times Iʼve crashed (also called a U.L. in my group – an
unintended landing) itʼs been because I missed something so that crash
was on me. Every time you learn from that mistake and donʼt do it again.

You will learn at your own pace.

I started to fly with little-fixed win aeroplanes and then moved onto
Helicopters (because they were cool) before moving onto multi-rotors.

Every model type has its own challenges to fly and there are lots of flying
styles too. Some pilots can fly a scale WWII model and make it look like
itʼs the full-sized thing (called ‘flying scaleʼ) and some pilots make the
model flip and roll around the sky in a dizzying array of aerobatics
(usually called flying ‘3Dʼ). Both disciplines call for hours and hours of
practice and months of trial and error developing those skills and while
natural skill can make a difference to how quickly a pilot becomes
proficient, its practice that makes perfect for everyone.

Some things youʼll try will come easy, some will take years to master. For
me, the one thing that really caused me problems was the ability to hover
a helicopter or multirotor ‘nose inʼ. Thatʼs where the ‘noseʼ of the model is
pointed towards you. In this orientation then the controls are reversed –
left is right, backwards is forwards. Being able to hover and control the
model like this took me years of practice and the thing that finally
cracked it was a little indoor quadcopter and about 50 batteries over the
winter months, hovering in the lounge (apologies to my wife who
patiently watched ‘Strictly Come Dancingʼ on the TV every Saturday night
around a hovering indoor model). It eventually ‘clickedʼ and became one
of those things I can do easily.

I followed a series of instructions to learn to fly helicopter and ‘dronesʼ

called ‘Radds School of Rotary flightʼ and it took me months to master
and when I failed at the next lesson I simply went back to practice the
one before. Eventually, it all became things I could do. Everyone has their
own pace of learning so donʼt get frustrated. If you canʼt get something
to work on the simulator or with the practice model then put it down and
come back to it when youʼre ready for another go.

So, in the next article, weʼll look at the tips and tricks when choosing not
only the model but the other pieces youʼll need to. So join me there and
weʼll look at the considerations and what Iʼd recommend if youʼre a
budding ‘plane or quadcopter pilot.

Until next time.

Written by Painless360