Question: Should I start with an R/C Airplane first?
Answer:
Absolutely not. You'd have to spend many years with the fixed wing aircraft to get any useful level of piloting skills to transfer to helis. Most RC airplane pilots have never developed any "touch" with their left hand (rudder and throttle). They only use rudder for ground steering and seldom adjust power in flight until time to land, when they chop the throttle to idle The really GOOD airplane pilots DO develop touch with the left hand, but they are a decided minority. With Helis, the left stick controls are EVERY BIT as important as the right stick! There are no "primary/secondary" controls when hovering your heli. From the very first attempt at hovering, you must constantly make many small corrections with all 4 controls. In fact, that's 99% of the reason that helis are somewhat harder to learn to fly - you're learning to use more controls all at once. Now, don't get me wrong - the airplane pilots DO have some valuable experience to bring along, in that they will already have a good understanding of 2-stroke engines and usually some knowledge of programming a radio, and what the radio does. But you can certainly learn those with a heli as your first model too. If you want to fly helis, buy a heli. If you want to fly planes, buy a plane. If you want to fly both, make sure you buy a HELI radio - they can fly planes too. You will probably find that if you start with helicopters, and then move into planes as well, you will be a MUCH better airplane pilot. Back to top
