General Buddy Box

Matt

Member
How many people buddy boxed with someone to learn to fly or did the majority of you learn alone without help from someone else?
 

murankar

Staff member
Learned on my own. Never had hardware or clubs / people to work with. I started with training gear and moved on from there.
 

RandyDSok

Well-Known Member
A little of both ( on an airplane )....

In my mid-teens, my Dad did give me a couple of lessons ( 2-3 ) without a buddy box, just handing the transmitter back and forth. I did purchase a heli ( a Cricket ) a little later but never got time to actually fly it by myself or with someone with any experience. That pretty much stopped my RC endeavors during that timeframe.

Then I got back into it in 2010... I got a copy of Realflight and just flew on that for a couple of months. In March, I joined a local club and never seemed to catch anyone at the field... so I just went for it alone finally. I had a 57" P-51D Mustang ( an Airfield foamy ). I went out, pointed her south and gave it almost full stick... flew around several times and then just about the time I felt I should land it... one of the other members showed up just in time to see me land using the short strip since the wind had shifted on me. While it came in a little hot at least I didn't nose it over and I was pretty happy with everything, the take off, flight and landing. After I got it taxied in... the other member came up and introduced himself. He asked how long I'd been flying and I mentioned that was my first time which sort of surprised him. He said I did great on the landing considering that and then also mentioned they ( the club ) usually requires that new members first get "qualified" by someone in the club before they are allowed to fly by themselves but it didn't look that'd be needed now... and then chuckled a bit. After a little bit of chit chat... I changed batteries and went again. The landing wasn't as good as the first and I did nose it over but nothing was damaged.

I also swore off on ever getting another floamy plane again... even as a new pilot I could "feel" how wiggly they were in the air. I did try to stiffen various areas of the Mustang but each time I flew it, it'd still not be a stable as I wanted. Next I got an Airborne Model's Mustang ( 46-48" can't remember now ) and it was a night and day difference from the foamy.
 

Tony

Staff member
Randy is not cool enough for the heli crowd. He is one of them that looked down at me when I pulled out my helicopter at the flying field... Just kidding of course :chuckles:
 

RandyDSok

Well-Known Member
Randy is not cool enough for the heli crowd. He is one of them that looked down at me when I pulled out my helicopter at the flying field... Just kidding of course :chuckles:

Only... I wasn't looking down on you because of the heli... LMAO :D
 

fran11784

Goblin 380 Supporter
I began flying helicopters when all we had were rate mechanical gyros and nitro engines. Took me 6 months before I could hover without the training gear.... It was the only way to learn back then
 

holtneil

Active Member
They were big helis as well . It cost an average of £30 for 30 seconds hover before I crashed took me about 6 months before I could take off hover and land the 6 min battery life , worth it tho still can't do 3D
 

Admiral

Well-Known Member
A little bit of buddy box when I went from sailplanes to power planes, flew OK but my landings were appalling.
Helicopter was on my own, a very frustrating way to learn, should have gone from Co-Axial straight to 450 CP would have been easier than working my way up.
 
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