Join a club or learn by yourself? (my experience)

Well i thought i would share my experience as a novice pilot.

I bought a 450 pro heli early this year and intended to teach myself how to fly..Bad move as i found out the hard way. Spent a absolute fortune in repairing the heli everytime i went out so i then decided to try and get into planes instead as that has always been a passion of mine. I went and bought a ST Models Discovery and thought how hard can it be? 1st flight and crash landed which resulted in a bit of damage but soon repaired it. Now see i have always thought "pppffttt i dont need to join a club, i dont need to waste money on that". Well i was a little bored one day and thought i will just pop down my local club and se what the deal is. So i emailed them and they invited me down for a chat.. Went down there and met a great bunch of people and i was chatting to the chairman and he said where is my model?? I reply"its at home" and he said" Well it aint no good there lol". He then proceeded to pull out a second transmitter and said "here you can have a fly of my model on the buddy box if you like"??

"Nooo i cant do that" i said

"Look thats how we do it here now get that neck strap on" he said.

5 minutes later i was flying his plane...What a top bloke.

Anyways after joinig the club and visiting a few times with my ST for some buddy box action i am now ok to fly solo(long as someone is there with me that is).

So basicaly what i am trying to say is to all those begginers who think they can do it on there own, just bite the bullet and join a club..YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT AT ALL.

Cheers Chris

PS Sorry if my grammer is crap

Spot on Chris - good post!

BEB

Well said that man! I second those remarks!

Terry

So do I Terry. Why not name the club on here, we get negative news sometimes regarding this problem. Well done **** Model Flying Club.

Every club needs a chairman like that!!

Hi Nescafe37,I think that Your post is honest ,illuminating and Your attitude is correct...

Cheers

Joe

p.s.I usually drink only nescafe(Gold).lol

Thanks guys. I dont really want to name the club or chairman as i dont want to seem like a suck up but if the chairman reads this he knows who he is.

I also forgot to add that when i was on the buddy box with him my motor packed up(damage from my 1st flight before i joined the club no doubt lol) and he took the controls and glided it back in with no problems what so ever.

Now just think beginners....If i was still trying to fly on my own that would of ended in disaster and no doubt would of destroyed my plane and therefor i would of probably gave up on the whole idea of flying and that would be one less rc model pilot on the scene

Cheers Chris

I can't stand any sort of "instant coffee" and only drink real coffee made from freshly ground beans - when I'm not having a cup of tea of some sort that is.

Malcolm.

ps I taught myself to fly - the hard way...

Edited By Malcolm Fisher on 14/09/2012 20:49:06

Hi Chris.

We don't worry about grammar on this forum.

Not as long as she looks after grandad, that is.

It's nice to hear people having fun with this hobby and I agree that joining a club is the best way forward but unfortunately when I decided to get back into the hobby about 10 Years ago after about a 10 year break my experience in joining a club was far from great.

Upon attending the site with my newly scratched built trainer which I was particularly proud about the chairman's first comments to me we're something like another piece of rubbish I'm expected to trim I guess.

i assumed I just caught him on an off day but my subsequent visits to the club faired not much better. I would often turn up on a Sunday early and spend about four hours at the field only to receive about 10 minutes worth of flying time. It wasn't that there was anyone else learning to fly, it just seems they couldn't be bothered with new learner members.

after a few months I had enough of it all and gave up at the club and paid someone to teach me the basics using my own trainer

I now have some spare time and teaching myself to fly with a foamy and although having a few crashes and the plane has more tape on it than foam at the moment I must say I'm enjoying it much more than I did when I was at the club.

I like to think that my experience is not common and that most clubs have decent and willing to teach members but ,for me teaching myself is the way I'm going and that my scratch built trainer which after many years now is still in pristine condition, will be my new plane I take up once the foamy has been mastered.

All the best

Pilot error2,

do you fancy naming that club? I dont know about others but cant stand that captain of the skies atitude, and would rather not visit or join a club like that. You can PM me if you wish?

My daily pain and medication cycles are extremely prohibitive when it comes to attending venues and my nearest club is extraordinaly expensive to join, combined with the attitudinal horror stories I have read about on this forum I have decided to self teach. OK, I have the advantage that prior to my illness I was a flying and gliding instructor with over 7000 hrs combined experience, so flight principles aren't a problem, but what IS, is this sitting in the middle of a park surrounded by trees, watching a model very quickly and in the time it takes to do one 360, become very small and undefinable indeed, this is followed by a period of anxiety until it becomes recognisable again. The answer is obviously to keep it close in, but then you're dodging trees and every approach has everything dangling with left stick and right rudder side slipping to get it down safely. Haven't had so much fun since the school dance! Sounds great when it's written down, but YOU go and try it every time you want to land and not have a repair job in the offing. However, the park is always available, I make sure that one of my planes is always ready, and I have only my own self determined(and quite strict) rules to adhere to. So just like me there must be many reading this who are quite happy to do their own thing, although not experiencing the benefits of club membership we are similarly not being hindered either. Apologies for the rant.

Hi,

that is really sad PE2. I suppose in any walk of life there are "bad 'uns" and R/C flying is no exception. But what always crops up in my mind when I do occassionally hear tales like this is "where do theses bozos think the next generation of flyers is going to come from?" One day they'll wake up and realise that there are not enough members in their club to cover the costs and keep things going and whos fault will that be?

In my view, and I honestly believe its the view of the overwhelming majority, this is a "no-brainer". If we don't welcome beginners and help them to learn, the hobby will die - and none of us want that. So, leaving aside any motativations of "wanting to help others", training beginners addresses pure self interest!

Over the years I've had experience of a number of clubs. I'm not so naive as to believe that every beginner in those clubs was treated perfectly on every occassion - but I do believe the vast majority were the vast majority of the time!

So, if you ever feel the inclination to "dip your toe" into the club scene again - I hope you will not let this bad experience put you off. A good plan might be to ask on here for recommendations!

BEB

I think that BEB makes a great point that it is a 'no-brainer' that clubs need to adopt an inclusive and encouraging approach towards anyone who shows the slightest interest in taking up our hobby.

However, the reality of life is that this will not always be the case, model flying is not different to many other interests in life and you'll find great clubs, good clubs ... and not so good clubs ...

BEB makes a very valid point about sustainability, any club that is 'managed' with an eye to the future will understand the need to show an open, enthusiastic and accomodating attitude towrds new members. It is todays new members who (if we are lucky) will take care of our clubs' futures.

The reality is that not all clubs will be motivated by thoughts of sustatining the future ... I think it is only true to say that some clubs exist primarily to serve the interest of existing club members who may have a very limited outlook on what is acceptable in our hobby.

A good example of this is the discussion about ARTF and RTF models ... I know there are some folks who just would not give the time of day to anyone who turned up at a club field with an out of the box model, you know a Parkzone type model .... that is a shame ..

I'm a bit long in the tooth about this ... having flown models on and off for at least the last 40 years ... I've seen clubs come and go and been a member of many clubs during that itme ... sad to say that at the moment I am not a member of any local club ... membership waiting lists, very restricted flyng hours ... to be honest it just isn't worth the hassle ... although I would love to be a club member ... as it is I fly responsbily on my own ...

Hi spammy boys,

i don't mind naming the club ( I'll pm you) but it was just over 10 years ago and I would hope that it has changed since then..it see it is still registered with the bmfa ..from the posts here it seems like the majority of beginners have a move positive experience of clubs which is great!

And good luck nescafe7..I'm sure you will be flying warbirds or whatever you prefer a lot quicker than me ..but hey I'm having fun which is all what it's about really.

All the best

If you really have to learn on your own, make sure safety to others is number 1, and understand how each flight control doesn't need lots of push and pull, gentle movements just like full size, I have never seen a Cessna do loops and rolls on the way to the local airfield.

Excellent post Chris, you mirror my experiences exactly.

The first time around (30 years ago) I took the advice of my local model shop regarding a suitable basic trainer; they fitted me up (literally) with a 60 powered Avicraft Panic with a nice tuned pipe. After stuffing that model on its first flight, rather terminally I joined a club and received more appropriate advice and training with a suitable model, and had a most enjoyable time with them.

The second time around, earlier this year, I went straight to a club in my area for finger training exercises and a flight on the club’s trainer with a buddy-box prior to soloing with my own model.

There are approx 800 BMFA affiliated clubs, the vast majority good clubs, well run, and with good helpfull members. I would recommend to anyone to not be put off by tales of "unhelpfullness" it is the exception not the norm. The OP is more representative of what is out there than the negative tales.

My recommendation to anyone wanting to learn is go check out a few local clubs before buying anything, once you have decidied which club to join buy equipment that will fit within the club, buddyable transmitters for example.

Edited By Andy Symons on 22/09/2012 09:54:03

thats a sweeping statement big fella, but can only hope you are right

I have seen, many times,a tyro flyer with his gear on the floor, just standing around, on asking does he want to fly, generally, its jumped on with eagerness, but i dont see many asking the pilots to teach them,, its all about communication, for me, i no longer offer, if i am down the field with a model, invariably, its something complicated, or dear to me, and i want to give it full consideration, what a club needs to do is operate a proper training day, when tyro flyers get devoted time, i have heard the ive been down for 4 hours and not flown thing, SO many times, youve got a tongue in your head, use it,