Welcome to the World of Radio Control Airplanes!

This site is owned and maintained by Mike Buzzeo and Ken Isaac. Between us we have over 80 years of experience building and flying Radio Controlled Airplanes and unlike other websites, GettingAirborne.com receives no advertising dollars. So the information and advice we give you comes from our many years of experience and just plain common sense. We hope you find a lot of helpful information here about getting started in radio controlled airplanes, but for more specific questions, we highly suggest a visit to www.rcuniverse.com. We are both Moderators on RCU and can always be reached through the RCUniverse Beginner's forum. Just drop in, ask us a question and we (RCKen and MinnFlyer) will be happy to help.

Reasons Why You Should Follow the Proper Guidelines

1. Flying a Model Airplane is more difficult than it looks.
2. Model Airplanes are very dangerous. (Think of an 8 lb. object traveling at 60 MPH with a sharp blade on its nose that is spinning at 11,000 RPM)
3. You cannot stop an airplane while it's in the air. The only way to stop is to come in contact with the ground (or something attached to the ground i.e., light pole, building, tree, etc.). You can come in contact with the ground by landing on your wheels, or on some less desirable part of the plane (See #1).
4. Trainers, unlike more advanced planes, are designed to be forgiving, both for mistakes made in the air as well as for those inevitable "Unique Landings". Trainers usually have a flat bottom wing, which combined with a fair amount of dihedral, provides a very stable flying platform. A trainer will also provide a wing that is held in place with rubber bands. Imagine a plane doing a cartwheel on a landing (it happens more than you might think). The rubber bands will allow the wing to shift where a wing that has been bolted on would split the fuselage (body of the plane).
5. We're not trying to discourage you, quite the contrary; we would like nothing more than to see you succeed. We are simply trying to point out that you have to learn to walk before you can run. If you think you can do it without going through the right steps, chances are you will not only destroy your airplane, but you could seriously injure or kill someone in the process.

What Steps To Take?

Here is what most modelers would recommend you do to start out.

1. Find/Visit a Club
2. Purchase Equipment
3. Join AMA
4. Build/Assemble Plane
5. Start Your Instructions!

Find A Club

There are many good reasons for joining a club. First, you will be needing instruction, which clubs provide for FREE. Also, the things we are showing you here only scratch the surface of what you need to know. Things like: What kind of fuel? How do I get the fuel in the tank? What kind of starting battery? How tight should my propeller be? The list goes on and on and we don't even have the engine started yet! Another advantage to being in a club is that the other members will provide help in the way of equipment. Personally, I tell my students to get a plane, engine, radio, and fuel. I will let them use my fuel pump, starting battery, and my electric starter (it sure beats flipping a prop with a stick). Also, you may find that many club members have some used equipment they will sell at a good price and save you a few bucks. A club may even have (mine does) a "Club Trainer" which is a plane that new members may fly with an instructor just to start getting their feet wet while they are building their first plane.

You can also check here: AMA Club Search, but I think going to the hobby shop has a more personal touch. Besides, you might as well go and meet the guy who you will be giving all of your money to from now on. :-)

Once you go to the field and meet the guys, you can ask about club meetings, what planes / engines / radios they prefer, and who might be willing to instruct you. You will probably have to join the club before you are allowed to fly, but every club has their own rules about such things.

At this point it's worth mentioning club dues (which is something you will want to talk to them about while you're there). This amount varies greatly from club to club owing to things like whether or not they rent the field where they fly, or did they spend a lot of money for a paved runway, or a nice pit area? The club I belong to has a $25 per year membership with kids under 18 free and no initiation fee (this is considered pretty cheap). The most I ever paid was $75/year with a $100 initiation fee, and I've heard of club dues in excess of $200/year. So definitely ASK!

Purchase Equipment

What should you buy? Here is a list of things that you will need:

An airplane
An engine
A radio
Field accessories

Airplanes, engines and radios are all covered in the other pages which you can reach by clicking on the tabs at the top of the page, so for now, we will just talk about Field Accessories.

Field accessories

Field accessories are all of those incidental things you will need to get your plane airborne. Things like Fuel, a Glow Driver, an Electric Starter or "Chicken Stick", Rubber Bands, Wrenches, Screwdrivers, etc. But don't go crazy buying stuff. Talk to the guys in the club first. I know that personally, if someone showed up at my field with an airplane and fuel, I'd be more than happy to loan him anything else he needs. Of course, you don't want to mooch forever, but if you talk to the guys first, they may be very willing to help you out - they may even have some good used equipment they would be willing to part with at a good price (or even FREE!). We'll go into a little more detail on field accessories in some of the other areas.

Join the A.M.A.

"AMA" is an acronym for The Academy of Model Aeronautics. This is an organization dedicated to the promotion of model aircraft flying (For a more in-depth description, Click Here). Aside from giving flyers a lot of assistance, they provide liability insurance in case you ever damage someone's property with your airplane. Dues are approximately $50/year, and most clubs will insist that you become an AMA member before you are allowed to fly at their field on a regular basis (Although many will let you fly there a few times with a certified instructor on a "Buddy Box". More on the Buddy Box in the "Radios" section).

Build/Assemble a Plane

With the help of this site, and/or your fellow club members, you will decide which plane is best for you, purchase it, assemble it, and bring it out to the field where some of the club experts can look it over to make sure that you haven't made any mistakes, and they will take it up for it's maiden flight to make sure that it is air worthy. Once your plane has been certified as "OK" by the club, you can begin your training.

For now, let's move on to the next section: Airplanes

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