Sparky

Life long modeler I’m very familar with flight training with a model. For those who are unfamiliar. This airplane has a stabilization program that prevents the pilot from crashing if he will just let go of the controls. I have found the electric powerd airplanes better at repeatable results in short order.
FYI My first carrier landing was with a control line model in 1971 and my last carrier landing was in the spring of 1991 after 949 traps in the US Navy. Modeling is an excellent pathway into full size aviation!
See https://www.modelaviation.com/ to find a model club near you and start your aviation journey. Regardless of age 8-80 I’ve trained them all!

pilot135pd

Wouldn’t be great if they posted a link or some way to contact Clarence Ragland? I’ve been searching for 30 minutes and can’t find anything recent about him. As a CFII for decades in real planes & helicopters and now retired and looking for new ways to teach, I’d love to learn more about his RC technique.

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bpolits

Here’s a link from an AI portal that has Clarence’s address and ph# at bottom - I haven’t done any research to find out if this is correct but it might be a start: https://www.perplexity.ai/search/clarence-ragland-ama-rc-model-o5fILZCVTUqf3kmFt6p9lw

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bpolits

I’m a lifelong AV enthusiast, built stick & tissue in the 60’s & 70’s, and have taught music to beginners since the '80’s. I have put a lot of thought into RC pedagogy.

These are the steps I followed to learn to fly RC and that I recommend for all: Step 1 - RC simulator. Step 2 - small indoor RC helicopter. Step 3 would be a long the lines of what Clarence does, but with a rudder/elevator/throttle controlled foamy instead of the built-up nitro bird Clarence uses. Why rudder-only? A huge downfall of lots of RC (and full-size!) pilots is that the rudder knowledge isn’t ingrained as a critical primary control - kind of like learning to drive without brakes/fuel/transmission. A rudder-only aircraft solves this problem and will give the student “rudder for life”.

And if you do my Steps 1 & 2, you don’t need a guy like Clarence - you can do Step 3 on your own.

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txkflier

That video is from 12 years ago. Most trainer aircraft today are electric powered and have a receiver with a built-in gyro that can prevent a student from getting the plane upside down. You can buy a ready-to-fly trainer for at little as $150. If you go to an Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) club, you can get 90 days of instruction and liability insurance coverage for free. Since a model aircraft flies in the airspace that’s regulated by the FAA, there are rules and regulations that you need to be aware of. Get a club instructor to teach you the right way.

pilot135pd

Thank you. That info helps and I just emailed him, hopefully it’s current.

pilot135pd

Which RC simulator do you recommend for airplanes and helicopters?
Do they bring the control or can I use the one I own?
Can they be run on a Mac OS laptop?

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Radiodaze

In July 1969, I soloed my first R/C model, a three channel trainer. In 1972 I Took my first flying lesson in a Cessna 150 and did very well - the instructor at first though I was a ringer sent in. Soloed in 6.4 hours; not because I was some kind of child prodigy but because model airplanes gave me an insight how full-size airplanes worked. 50 years later I retired from American as an Airbus 321 Captain. with 26,000 hours. And I still enjoy R/C planes! Flying models give you an insight you can never duplicate with a computer.

tommy

Building and flying model airplanes is what got me hooked, except it was U-control. There wasn’t a lot of RC around in 66-67. At least not by me and I think the cost was a bit out of reach back then. How things have changed.

bpolits

I’m not up on current simulators. I started in 2008 with a free windows simulator and man it works just fine to learn the control movements in various directions and orientations. I think you can get them for Mac.

My next move was a coaxial heli that I put a couple of dowels in an x shape with ping pong balls on the end cable tied to the kids to help prevent broken blades in a rollover. Nowadays Horizon hobby has small very workable little Helis to start with.

But my best advice is to do a Google search for “rcgroups helicopters” and join the forum and engage with the vets there who are more current. Have fun!