
My Advice to New Flyers.
I would have saved hundreds of dollars if I had received better advice when I started flying radio control. In these articles we are going to tell you how to build high quality, high performance planes that don't break and still fly on a budget. We try to keep things inexpensive and simple. Watch our videos. Read the articles on our web site. We love to fly and think that you will too if you get durable products and good information.
All flyers need help to get started flying radio control. As one of the local RC club trainers, I get asked the same questions so often I have made this series of articles to help you get started. We have articles and videos and instructions showing and how to build your plane and explaining radios, motors, batteries, how to set up flying events and many other RC topics. You will find links to these resources above in our header.
The secret of successful radio control is attention to detail. There are flyers that can make any plane look and fly great. You can be one of those flyers. What these people know is how to set up and trim their planes. When I got started I looked at what the local flyers were doing. I did a lot of reading and got on the threads and talked to the flyers that were successfully flying. What seemed confusing at first is now part of my knowledge and conversation. Some of the most challenging things to figure out are the most rewarding when you make them work.
If you are looking for the worlds best first plane, our Albatross is an indestructible EPP foam design to help new flyers. It is a simple, low stress plane designed to level its own wings and put its nose on the horizon. It is the easiest to fly plane I have seen. I have several Albatrosses I fly FPV or put LED lights for night flying. It is a quiet plane. It does well in small fields and neighborhood parks. The motor sits up on a pod so you won't break the motor or propeller. You can develop the skills you need to fly more advanced planes while flying the Albatross. It is designed to use inexpensive motors, batteries and electronic parts to save you money. It is cut with a CNC from durable 100% EPP foam so you know it will last.
We have a flying wing for every occasion. I taught all four of my sons to fly with EPP foam flying wings. They had a lot of crashes but they didn't break their EPP flying wings. EPP wings last longer and spend more time in the air and less time in the shop than any other type of RC plane. Why? Flying wings are simple, strong and light. They are easy to build and travel well. You can carry several under one arm and not worry about breaking them. They are cut from solid EPP foam that doesn't crush and is so tough we can hit a brick wall and the plane can survive. We also fly combat and limbo and pylon and the flying wings survive. We sell them in many sizes from tiny to huge giving you a large selection to choose from.
It changes the way you feel about flying when you don't have to worry about breaking your plane. Most RC flyers spend their time trying to avoid each other in the air and fixing broken airplanes in their shop. EPP flying wings are so durable that you can fly together and hope you have a collision. I changed my whole attitude about flying when we developed the EPP wings we sell today. We really don't worry about flying in wind or having a midair collision at the flying field. Our planes are tough and our customers agree... Read the comments from our customers.
Complex planes have complex problems. There are myths and practices that will confuse you when you are getting your first planes. May I clear up a couple for you. You don't have to buy the biggest and most expensive plane or radio to have the most fun. Warbirds are not easy to fly. Most of the ready to fly planes (RTF) are fragile and don’t last very long. One good wreck and they are history. I recently had a frustrated parent report that the RTF (ready to fly) plane they bought as a Christmas present for their son only lasted 15 seconds. Another flyer reports he has purchased dozens of RTF planes and has spent over $4000.00 and still has a hard time flying because none of his planes have lasted very long. He said he had more flying time in a week with his CTH Albatross than in all the other planes he had owned combined!!!
Flying wings have many advantages. You can fly over any terrain and the plane can take the abuse. The prop and the motor are in the back so they don’t break if the plane hits something. The wing has a soft leading edge, which will do less damage if it does hit something. The electronics, servos, and battery are buried in the EPP wing, so they don’t break. There is no fuselage, landing gear, or tail surfaces to build or break. Flying wings need only two servos and a three channel radio, saving building time, weight, and money. They are easy to transport; I often will carry 6 or 7 flying wings under one arm. They perform incredibly well with inexpensive motors and batteries.
All of the planes sold by Crashtesthobby are cut from EPP foam and are designed to last. There are many kinds of foam. You will see advertisements for EPO planes, EPS, flat foam and other types of foam planes. These other foams crush and won’t ever return to the original shape like EPP can. Foam cups are made out of EPO foam. Once they are crushed they will never be the same again. EPP foam is more resistant to damage from glue and paint and is easy to maintain. Some manufacturers say their planes are made from EPP when they are really EPO. The test to see if a plane is really cut from EPP is see if the foam will dent. EPP will not dent. We even have record of a car backing over an EPP plane without damaging it.
We have designed our planes to fly well using low cost motors, batteries and radios. We tell you where you can buy the electronics at the same prices we pay. We don't even sell electronics because you can get such good deals on line. We don't try to nickel and dime you. We design our planes around certain motors and prop sizes so that you don't have to buy different motors and electronics to fly a variety of planes. The best example of this is we use the same battery, motor, prop radio and servos on our 35 mph Albatross and our 70 mph Assassin and Widowmaker which are higher performance planes.
We include laminate in our kits which saves you $10-$30 per plane. Our laminate is strong and shields the plane from UV light that can damage tape and glue. The laminate in the kit is clear, It is the only way we can get it but it is the strongest laminates we have found and one of the easiest to apply with a hot iron. We like to add color with a small amount of colored packing tape or decals or a little paint before we laminate.
We have some of the best slow flying planes you can buy. If this is your first plane or you are having trouble learning to fly, consider our slower flying 46″ Albatross or 34″ Pelican as your first plane. These planes are based on the 1930s “free flight” planes that truly could fly themselves before radio control. These planes will level their own wings and put their nose on the horizon without input from the pilot. If you are in trouble, release the sticks and if you have enough altitude the plane will turn itself right side up and put its nose on the horizon. This stability is built into the design of the plane, not the electronics. These planes are cut out of the same EPP foam as our combat wings, so they’ll last a long time. They are great for small parks where slow, quiet planes make better neighbors. Even our advanced pilots have loved the slow flyers for training family, friends, FPV and night flying. These planes are also designed to be tough and last. They use a solid block of a higher density EPP foam for a fuselage so it can’t crush and is easy to build. They have solid EPP wings and tails that make them more durable than other low speed flyers.
We started to fly combat every week, so we did a lot of field testing and have come up with designs and building techniques that let us abuse our planes. Our planes are designed to be so durable, we can hit each other in the air, bounce them off the ground, and fly through a tree, and the plane is still flyable. The EPP flying wings just keep on flying when other planes would be in the trash.
We love our foreign customers. We box our kits for lowest postage rates and will even re-box to put multiple planes in one box to give you the lowest postage rates. Everything is shipped in brown label without adds on the outside. We have building videos to show you how to build our planes for those who speak foreign languages and to help the rest of you see what we are doing. My wife says men don't read instructions anyway. We have planes in over 41 countries.
Building is half the hobby. Flyers are their own pit crew. You have to learn how to build and repair a plane and how to program a radio. Even if you buy a plane that is ready-to-fly (RTF) out of the box, you will still have repairs. If you didn’t build it you don’t know how to fix it. When parents ask us for help buying planes for their kids, we tell them a person is old enough to fly when he is able and has an interest in building and repairing his own planes. If he can’t do this, he isn’t likely to last in the hobby.
It is easier to learn to fly a RC plane if you spend some time with a flight simulator first. There are some great simulators out there that will help you learn to fly. Most of the people I know with simulators use them for a while but don’t continue using them, so don’t spend too much money at first. If you like them, you can upgrade later. For more information, see my article on Simulators.
Smaller planes are not easier to fly. Smaller planes tend to respond faster and be more sensitive to wind. I fly the Scythe when I want to show off and my Pelican with the polyhedral wing is so overpowered it will go straight up. These planes can be trainers if they are built ultra light so they can fly slow but even our basic motors make them heavy and fast. We have 26" Scythes flying over 100 mph that can roll 4X second! (WOW - that is like mach 10 in scale MPH.) If you are learning to fly the Pelican and Scythe are not as easy to learn on as the Albatross or Assassin. The Storm Chaser and the Grim Reaper are even one size up from there and size does help for some flyers, especially the older folks with bifocals. :-)
It’s no fun to fly alone. Some of my best friends fly RC and we meet several times a week and still are excited to go flying. Men need a hobby or sport activity to get them together on a regular basis. Too many men spend too much time alone. The group you fly with is as important as the planes you fly. I have many friends that I first met while flying radio control planes. Look at what the local flyers are doing and be an active part of the club or group in your area and you will have a lot more fun in the hobby.
If there is a secret to getting a local flying club started it is night flying. Night flying attracts and audience and it is amazing how the wives will tell the husbands that they need to get one of those pretty planes. I'm not joking. Many of our present flyers found us when we were flying at night. We fly our quiet planes at local parks and will also fly combat and swarms at night with multiple planes in parks where we can make more noise. It is one of my personal favorite ways to fly.
How much does the hobby cost? It’s up to you, based on the features you choose to buy in a radio or charger and other equipment. You can choose a $50 radio or a $900 radio. Either one can fly most of our planes. The more expensive radios have a lot of options that I seldom use. Get to know the lower cost but higher feature radios that are coming out. I have three of the FS-i6 radios and fly both trainer and high performance planes with them. These new radios are dependable and a fraction of the cost I have spent on other radio systems. I wrote a review on this radio that is on our website HERE.
Your first plane is usually more expensive because you have to get your charger, power supply, radio, batteries, ESC and motor, which will all be usable on the next planes you fly. Most new fliers spend $250+ to get the first plane with required equipment, and less than $100 for their second plane.
We are flyers on a budget. We have tried to create high performance products that will last and pass what we have learned on to you. If I compare this cost to my friends that boat, ski, golf, shoot, snowmobile, four-wheel, or travel… radio control is a good deal!
Many new flyers get excited and spend too much money on too many planes way too fast. When they start having trouble they get discouraged and we never see them again. Don’t start with 10 planes. Start with one or two simple planes and enjoy them. After you learn to fly you will enjoy those complex planes but don’t make them your first plane. Don’t feel pressure from what others are doing. The best way to save money is to get an easy to fly first plane, with dependable radio, and equipment.
Welcome, and hope to see you in the skies.
-Lee
I would have saved hundreds of dollars if I had received better advice when I started flying radio control. In these articles we are going to tell you how to build high quality, high performance planes that don't break and still fly on a budget. We try to keep things inexpensive and simple. Watch our videos. Read the articles on our web site. We love to fly and think that you will too if you get durable products and good information.
All flyers need help to get started flying radio control. As one of the local RC club trainers, I get asked the same questions so often I have made this series of articles to help you get started. We have articles and videos and instructions showing and how to build your plane and explaining radios, motors, batteries, how to set up flying events and many other RC topics. You will find links to these resources above in our header.
The secret of successful radio control is attention to detail. There are flyers that can make any plane look and fly great. You can be one of those flyers. What these people know is how to set up and trim their planes. When I got started I looked at what the local flyers were doing. I did a lot of reading and got on the threads and talked to the flyers that were successfully flying. What seemed confusing at first is now part of my knowledge and conversation. Some of the most challenging things to figure out are the most rewarding when you make them work.
If you are looking for the worlds best first plane, our Albatross is an indestructible EPP foam design to help new flyers. It is a simple, low stress plane designed to level its own wings and put its nose on the horizon. It is the easiest to fly plane I have seen. I have several Albatrosses I fly FPV or put LED lights for night flying. It is a quiet plane. It does well in small fields and neighborhood parks. The motor sits up on a pod so you won't break the motor or propeller. You can develop the skills you need to fly more advanced planes while flying the Albatross. It is designed to use inexpensive motors, batteries and electronic parts to save you money. It is cut with a CNC from durable 100% EPP foam so you know it will last.
We have a flying wing for every occasion. I taught all four of my sons to fly with EPP foam flying wings. They had a lot of crashes but they didn't break their EPP flying wings. EPP wings last longer and spend more time in the air and less time in the shop than any other type of RC plane. Why? Flying wings are simple, strong and light. They are easy to build and travel well. You can carry several under one arm and not worry about breaking them. They are cut from solid EPP foam that doesn't crush and is so tough we can hit a brick wall and the plane can survive. We also fly combat and limbo and pylon and the flying wings survive. We sell them in many sizes from tiny to huge giving you a large selection to choose from.
It changes the way you feel about flying when you don't have to worry about breaking your plane. Most RC flyers spend their time trying to avoid each other in the air and fixing broken airplanes in their shop. EPP flying wings are so durable that you can fly together and hope you have a collision. I changed my whole attitude about flying when we developed the EPP wings we sell today. We really don't worry about flying in wind or having a midair collision at the flying field. Our planes are tough and our customers agree... Read the comments from our customers.
Complex planes have complex problems. There are myths and practices that will confuse you when you are getting your first planes. May I clear up a couple for you. You don't have to buy the biggest and most expensive plane or radio to have the most fun. Warbirds are not easy to fly. Most of the ready to fly planes (RTF) are fragile and don’t last very long. One good wreck and they are history. I recently had a frustrated parent report that the RTF (ready to fly) plane they bought as a Christmas present for their son only lasted 15 seconds. Another flyer reports he has purchased dozens of RTF planes and has spent over $4000.00 and still has a hard time flying because none of his planes have lasted very long. He said he had more flying time in a week with his CTH Albatross than in all the other planes he had owned combined!!!
Flying wings have many advantages. You can fly over any terrain and the plane can take the abuse. The prop and the motor are in the back so they don’t break if the plane hits something. The wing has a soft leading edge, which will do less damage if it does hit something. The electronics, servos, and battery are buried in the EPP wing, so they don’t break. There is no fuselage, landing gear, or tail surfaces to build or break. Flying wings need only two servos and a three channel radio, saving building time, weight, and money. They are easy to transport; I often will carry 6 or 7 flying wings under one arm. They perform incredibly well with inexpensive motors and batteries.
All of the planes sold by Crashtesthobby are cut from EPP foam and are designed to last. There are many kinds of foam. You will see advertisements for EPO planes, EPS, flat foam and other types of foam planes. These other foams crush and won’t ever return to the original shape like EPP can. Foam cups are made out of EPO foam. Once they are crushed they will never be the same again. EPP foam is more resistant to damage from glue and paint and is easy to maintain. Some manufacturers say their planes are made from EPP when they are really EPO. The test to see if a plane is really cut from EPP is see if the foam will dent. EPP will not dent. We even have record of a car backing over an EPP plane without damaging it.
We have designed our planes to fly well using low cost motors, batteries and radios. We tell you where you can buy the electronics at the same prices we pay. We don't even sell electronics because you can get such good deals on line. We don't try to nickel and dime you. We design our planes around certain motors and prop sizes so that you don't have to buy different motors and electronics to fly a variety of planes. The best example of this is we use the same battery, motor, prop radio and servos on our 35 mph Albatross and our 70 mph Assassin and Widowmaker which are higher performance planes.
We include laminate in our kits which saves you $10-$30 per plane. Our laminate is strong and shields the plane from UV light that can damage tape and glue. The laminate in the kit is clear, It is the only way we can get it but it is the strongest laminates we have found and one of the easiest to apply with a hot iron. We like to add color with a small amount of colored packing tape or decals or a little paint before we laminate.
We have some of the best slow flying planes you can buy. If this is your first plane or you are having trouble learning to fly, consider our slower flying 46″ Albatross or 34″ Pelican as your first plane. These planes are based on the 1930s “free flight” planes that truly could fly themselves before radio control. These planes will level their own wings and put their nose on the horizon without input from the pilot. If you are in trouble, release the sticks and if you have enough altitude the plane will turn itself right side up and put its nose on the horizon. This stability is built into the design of the plane, not the electronics. These planes are cut out of the same EPP foam as our combat wings, so they’ll last a long time. They are great for small parks where slow, quiet planes make better neighbors. Even our advanced pilots have loved the slow flyers for training family, friends, FPV and night flying. These planes are also designed to be tough and last. They use a solid block of a higher density EPP foam for a fuselage so it can’t crush and is easy to build. They have solid EPP wings and tails that make them more durable than other low speed flyers.
We started to fly combat every week, so we did a lot of field testing and have come up with designs and building techniques that let us abuse our planes. Our planes are designed to be so durable, we can hit each other in the air, bounce them off the ground, and fly through a tree, and the plane is still flyable. The EPP flying wings just keep on flying when other planes would be in the trash.
We love our foreign customers. We box our kits for lowest postage rates and will even re-box to put multiple planes in one box to give you the lowest postage rates. Everything is shipped in brown label without adds on the outside. We have building videos to show you how to build our planes for those who speak foreign languages and to help the rest of you see what we are doing. My wife says men don't read instructions anyway. We have planes in over 41 countries.
Building is half the hobby. Flyers are their own pit crew. You have to learn how to build and repair a plane and how to program a radio. Even if you buy a plane that is ready-to-fly (RTF) out of the box, you will still have repairs. If you didn’t build it you don’t know how to fix it. When parents ask us for help buying planes for their kids, we tell them a person is old enough to fly when he is able and has an interest in building and repairing his own planes. If he can’t do this, he isn’t likely to last in the hobby.
It is easier to learn to fly a RC plane if you spend some time with a flight simulator first. There are some great simulators out there that will help you learn to fly. Most of the people I know with simulators use them for a while but don’t continue using them, so don’t spend too much money at first. If you like them, you can upgrade later. For more information, see my article on Simulators.
Smaller planes are not easier to fly. Smaller planes tend to respond faster and be more sensitive to wind. I fly the Scythe when I want to show off and my Pelican with the polyhedral wing is so overpowered it will go straight up. These planes can be trainers if they are built ultra light so they can fly slow but even our basic motors make them heavy and fast. We have 26" Scythes flying over 100 mph that can roll 4X second! (WOW - that is like mach 10 in scale MPH.) If you are learning to fly the Pelican and Scythe are not as easy to learn on as the Albatross or Assassin. The Storm Chaser and the Grim Reaper are even one size up from there and size does help for some flyers, especially the older folks with bifocals. :-)
It’s no fun to fly alone. Some of my best friends fly RC and we meet several times a week and still are excited to go flying. Men need a hobby or sport activity to get them together on a regular basis. Too many men spend too much time alone. The group you fly with is as important as the planes you fly. I have many friends that I first met while flying radio control planes. Look at what the local flyers are doing and be an active part of the club or group in your area and you will have a lot more fun in the hobby.
If there is a secret to getting a local flying club started it is night flying. Night flying attracts and audience and it is amazing how the wives will tell the husbands that they need to get one of those pretty planes. I'm not joking. Many of our present flyers found us when we were flying at night. We fly our quiet planes at local parks and will also fly combat and swarms at night with multiple planes in parks where we can make more noise. It is one of my personal favorite ways to fly.
How much does the hobby cost? It’s up to you, based on the features you choose to buy in a radio or charger and other equipment. You can choose a $50 radio or a $900 radio. Either one can fly most of our planes. The more expensive radios have a lot of options that I seldom use. Get to know the lower cost but higher feature radios that are coming out. I have three of the FS-i6 radios and fly both trainer and high performance planes with them. These new radios are dependable and a fraction of the cost I have spent on other radio systems. I wrote a review on this radio that is on our website HERE.
Your first plane is usually more expensive because you have to get your charger, power supply, radio, batteries, ESC and motor, which will all be usable on the next planes you fly. Most new fliers spend $250+ to get the first plane with required equipment, and less than $100 for their second plane.
We are flyers on a budget. We have tried to create high performance products that will last and pass what we have learned on to you. If I compare this cost to my friends that boat, ski, golf, shoot, snowmobile, four-wheel, or travel… radio control is a good deal!
Many new flyers get excited and spend too much money on too many planes way too fast. When they start having trouble they get discouraged and we never see them again. Don’t start with 10 planes. Start with one or two simple planes and enjoy them. After you learn to fly you will enjoy those complex planes but don’t make them your first plane. Don’t feel pressure from what others are doing. The best way to save money is to get an easy to fly first plane, with dependable radio, and equipment.
Welcome, and hope to see you in the skies.
-Lee