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What does it take to get started in radio control flying?
The desire to learn is probably one of the most important things you need. There are so many ways to learn to
fly today. In the early days of radio control an instructor would take the trainee to the local flying
field and after checking over his model would take it into the air. Once in the air and trimmed out he
would simply hand the transmitter to the student and say here you go... When the student would loose
control he would hand the radio back to the instructor and hopefully he had
enough time to regain control. Today training a student is a much different matter.
By using what is called the buddy box system we can
train people without passing the radio back and forth between the instructor and the student. The use of a computer simulator is another great
idea. Several brands of a "radio control" simulator are on the market today. The advantage to this method is you can practice no matter what
the weather is outdoors, you have no fear of losing an aircraft that may have taken you so long to build. Best of all there is no down time to
repair a crashed aircraft. Many pilots have gone from a simulator to the real thing with only one or two buddy box sessions. (Every pilot is
different) What ever investment you have in a simulator is worth it! We will discuss types
of simulators and where to buy them shortly.
We will break up the
getting started page into two sections. One if you are interested in airplanes and the other for those interested in helicopters. These are
two different arena's and if you are new to the hobby we strongly urge that you learn to fly a plane first before considering a
helicopter. In each section we will give you an overview of how we (MRFA)
Mad River Flying Association, will provide training to a new pilot and
help inform a beginner of what equipment he will need. We will provide you with links to other
websites with information as well. The most important part of the process is the
commitment from the trainee. We know that you can not spend 24 hours a day, seven days a week on a hobby, but we do ask that
at some point in the training process that you try to give 2 or 3 evening in a row. You will see the most
dramatic increase in your flying skills by doing so and it will shorten the time it takes
for you learn to fly on your own.
Enjoy the following pages and please feel free to contact any member from
the contact page for assistance.
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