New pilot and Cessna 182.

[JSSuper]

A good friend of mine gave me a couple of planes. An Aerobird Challenger and Firebird Commander. The commander flies fine, although its very slow to respond to input.. Even in "sport mode". However the Aerobird doesn't respond at all, just banks left rolls over and crashes. I think I traced the problem to the rear plastic V support peice that the V tail rests in. The left side of the \/ is broken away leaving just the /. Needless to say trimming the plane is nearly impossible.

Anyhow. A trusted friend works at the LHS. He wholly recommended the FLYZONE Cessna 182. Its a 4-channel plane and is complete. Even quoted me a great price on it. $139 Its been his personal plane for several months now and he has had nothing but good to say about it. I had concerns about being good enough to fly it with the extra controlls, however he said the plane handles nicely and is slow enough and stable. He seemed to think I could handle it.

Has anyone experienced this plane? I am thinking of taking his advice and getting it. I've looked at the construction of the plane and it seems to be well made....

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXNHS0**&P=ML

I'm a seasoned racer, but I'm new to being in the air higher than 6'..... :D

[Mark R]

I say go for it, I think you will be happy with the results.

[JSSuper]

Well I decided to try it on the new sim at the LHS. G3.5 has that FlyZone Cessna on it. I flew it for a good 45 minutes this weekend. Only crashed twice. The first attempt at landing and the second I was a little to low and at full throttle... camera panned with the plane and there was a tree :wave: ....... :eek:. Anyway I talked them into selling it to me for $129. I just got done putting it together and charged up, unfortunately its been raining here all day so it will have to wait.

So far though, I'm pretty excited to try it.

[aeajr]

FYI, the Aerobird V brace typically comes a new tail for $10. The Aerobird was the plane that got me flying. I love it.

[Leo L]

JSSuper,

Welcome to R/C flying and good luck with your plane. I would not have recommended the Cessna for you at this time because although it flies quite well, it is really an intermediate level plane, not a beginner's plane. However, since you already bought it, I would advise you to make sure that you are flyin when there is NO WIND. You will need to constantly remind yourself to use very small control inputs. Typically, beginner's tend to over control. Think of someone who is lerning to ride a bike. Initially, the bike is being steered all over the place in their attempt to go straight. As they get better, the bike strightens out. Same thing with flying. The ailerons give much quicker response to steering input than rudder, so you must be very careful not to overcontrol.

Let us know how you make out.

[CitaFly]

Well I decided to try it on the new sim at the LHS. G3.5 has that FlyZone Cessna on it. I flew it for a good 45 minutes this weekend. Only crashed twice. The first attempt at landing and the second I was a little to low and at full throttle... camera panned with the plane and there was a tree :wave: ....... :eek:. Anyway I talked them into selling it to me for $129. I just got done putting it together and charged up, unfortunately its been raining here all day so it will have to wait.

So far though, I'm pretty excited to try it.

Very curious as to how you made out - IMHO any plane with a balsa wing is not a good move for a beginner.

[2scamper]

I received the Cessna 182 as a Christmas Gift and have tried flying it several times. Not much luck to start out, but I am learning slowly. After many crashes and repairs, I was finally able to fly with a little control over the weekend. Overall I am disappointed. It seems to me that the plane is underpowered. However I admit that I am learning slowly. And small control movements seem to be the key. At least it is an inexpensive way to learn and hopefully advance to another plane. I think my next plane will be a flat out from Great Planes. Does anyone have any experience with these?

[aeajr]

This may be helpful in your training:

Six Keys to Success
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=355208

[JSSuper]

So far I have to agree. I'm having some difficulty with it myself. The issue wasn't flying or landing really. Its been in getting it airborn.

On my second flight I came in for a bit of a bumpy landing. This tweaked my front tire and I didn't notice. On the next take off, the plane turned agressively right and smacked into the curb. This tweaked the motor plate downward and also broke the nose off the plane from the firewall. I've fixed all that, fixed my front tire and got the plane to taxi strait.

I attempted take off again today....... The plane didn't hint at getting off the ground. At speed the plane got squirly and as I ran out of runway it went into the curb again, this time bending the motor shaft, breaking the prop, cracking the firewall and runing the front tire.

I'm ordering the parts to fix the plane. I glued the firewall tightly and have it angled correctly. I noticed my motor plate was bent down, from the earlier crash. This leads me to beleive that is the primary reason for failed take off attempts.

Needless to say. I feel that once in the air, the plane is nice to fly and is fast enough. I think that more power would definitely help get it airborn.

Also, the wing is not balsa, its a very packed foam. different than other foam planes. Its actually proven to be quite durable. The biggest issues I have is getting it in the air. Once there I really don't want to bring it in for fear of not getting it back in the air.

I'm not giving up, just thinking of getting a different plane to fly while I shelve that one until I add a little more power and get better at, um well Take-off.

A flyer I met recommended the Super Cub. He says its slow, but takes off in less than half the distance of the Cessna. He has both and he is a very capable pilot. He informed me that though he has several planes, the Super Cub is still one of his favorite fly-ers. I'm giving it serious thought until I can get the skills and the HorsePower to fly the Cessna properly.

[CitaFly]

I would strongly urge you to start with the Super Cub - I have one and my review:

Amp Aviators SC Rvw (http://www.ampaviators.com/articlescrvw/)

As you can see from the other SC articles, there's a lot you can do to it as your skills improve. Be sure to check out the video at the end of the article - this is one tough bird!

[JSSuper]

Thanks CitaFly... looks great. One of the LHS's has one in stock. I race with the owner and he told me he'd cut me a deal. I'll probably go pick it up tomorrow.

[dalosiman]

I know this post has been arround since February but I wanted to add some information that may help others.

I've been flying RC planes since 1986 and I would like to mention a couple of things here.

The first one is that you may want to start with a good slow flying 4 channel airplane. I'm not familiar with the flyzone cessna but in my past experience the cessna models I have seen have had a bit too high of a wingloading for learning to fly with full house controlls (4 channel or more). I was out of the hobby for about 5 years and got back in to it about the time GWS released the Pico Cub F and Pico Tiger Moth (yes these are only 3 channel models but I put the rudder on the aileron channel of the receiver to re teach myself to fly). I bought both and went from there. I decided to get a good quality programmable radio that that has multiple model memory (A good idea if your serious about staying in RC). I read through the directions carefully and had both models assembled in a couple of evenings after work much to the shegrins of my wife (bless her for allowing me to clutter up our kitchen table). I also borrowed a friends Real Flight simulator and practiced, practiced, and practiced till I was blue in the face. I then made sure that I had my batteries for radio and electrics fully charged and chose an evening when there was almost no wind to start flying again.

For my flying site I chose a large area that had areas of tall grass and had no trees nearby and I chose to fly the cub first as it was the larger (easier to see in the air) of the 2 planes and also had a LOT of wing area (lighter wing loading makes the plane fly slower) and plenty of dihedral (The V in the wing) which would allow for a easier recovery in case I got into trouble. I did a thorough range check, then made sure all of my controlls were working properly and not binding. I faced the model into the wind and added power gradually and gave the cub a LEVEL toss and away she went. It was a bit out of trim but I made sure to use small ammounts of input to correct this and got it what I like to call 3 mistakes high (about 200 feet) before backing down to about 1/2 to 3/4 throttle and then trimming it out (A properly trimmed hi wing model such as the GWS Cub will fly hands off). I proceeded to fly in circles starting with left turns first untill I was absolutley comfortable and my knees has quit shaking. I used the standard GWS flight kit with the NiMH 700 mah batteries and pico servos and 1amp esc and I got about 10 minute flights out of the cub. Once I was thoroughly comfortable flying the cub (after about a week) I decided to fly the Tiger Moth. Both of these kits fly exceptionally well.

The reason I am going into such detail is that I am deducting from JS Supers post that trying to fly from a street in your neighborhood is NEVER a good idea!!!!!! This should be the last place you try to learn to fly a full house plane. I would also have an experienced flyer (one who has a LOT of experience with full house models) help get it off the ground and up in the air before taking the controlls. This alone may have saved the damages and downtime to this model. I would rather ask for help and save my model than be too pridefull to take my new plane home in a shoebox (I have seen this happen on many an occasion to new flyers) and most any one with even moderate experience will gladly help you!

I wish you the best and hope you have a great time flying your new plane! :)

Jon

[Mike Early]

The plane is indeed, underpowered.
Very thin wing, so you need speed.

These two do not work well together.

The good news is: after you've learned to fly this plane, you are way ahead of other beginners.