What RC plane to buy?

3D printing is changing RC world at a pace…

before anything else, get phoenix or realflight sim – realistic enough that you can learn most stuff you need to know.

Get a spektrum 5 or 6 channel TX, as every club has loads of them. They work directly with the sims above no adaptowidgets needed.

Real thing? Multiplex Funcub – almost 100% ideal learner plane. Or Foss Wot trainer, very similar, slightly cheaper. Or Hobbyking bixler, the cheap option but still pretty good. Don’t buy anything fast to start with, you will hit the ground / car / yourself / tree in short order.

Should be plenty of change from £500 to get some batteries and charger.

Do join a club. Having a bunch of other 2000% uncool blokes around makes it all a ton easier, as they’ve broken all the stuff you’re about to break but don’t realise it, and done all the whoops-its-in-a-tree moments as well, and probably have a charger to use because you left yours at home and everything is flat. Also, insurance is a Good Thing to have, these things can (obviously don’t usually, but can) hurt/damage/get you in trouble. And clubs have people selling old kit.

I have just bought Phoenix, got to get a transmitter now.
Above it said a Spektrum plugs straight in, don’t they all plug in?

I had visions of buying an SE5a kit and going into the field next door, then I realised I would probably break it pretty quick.

bencooper – Member

Those slopesoarers are amazing – but fixed-wing aircraft scare me. The only thing I’ve flown seriously is a bunch of Mikrokopter multi-rotor helicopters, with those if your head gets messed up you can just press a button and it’ll sit in one place in the sky until you get yourself sorted out. Can’t do that with a fixed-wing aircraft.

Yes you can, any model with “SAFE SELECT” has a panic button mode which instantly returns the aircraft to level flight.

On a more boring note, if you’re flying it within 6 km of an airfield, give the Tower a call

Malvern Rider – that vid is great.