How to avoid common mistakes

How to choose a new/first plane

On most forums, this questions come once in a while and is a very relevant one, not only when you decide to buy your first plane, but all along the journey. In general, many planes are similar, so getting them is kind of useless, if you have already one from the same category. At the end of the day, everyone prefers several planes in his fleet, and drop many others. One of the beginner's temptation (not only beginners...) is to buy many planes, as they all look so nice. DON'T !!! as most people will regret it and also discover that most of them are not really what they wanted, or are just not adding any more fun to what they already have.

What are the possible angles to think about?

Type of equipment necessary for this plane
How difficult is it to build it
How difficult is it to transport it to the field
How difficult is it to fly it
How much flying time does it have
Do you leave near a location where you will be able to fly it
Money you want to spend

Let's review one by one now

1. Type of equipment necessary for this plane

Try to think to get equipment which will be re-usable, for your later planes. For example, avoid planes where the battery won't be re-usable later, or that the receiver/radio are just compatible with this plane, but nothing else.
Check that the radio equipment you will buy is compatible with your country allowed frequencies
Check that the frequency you will choose, won't disturb anyone, at the place you plan to fly
Think about how it will be, if you will decide to resell, in case you discover that this hobby is just not for you.
If you buy a plane, and you already have some batteries, you may look into a model that will be compatible with these batteries/ESC/motors you already have.

2. How difficult is it to build it

If you are not familiar with building methods, get an ARF (Almost Ready to Fly), and an easy one. Some "ARF" are complicated to build, and take many hours. So ask the vendor, Ezone, before you'll buy a model, as if you don't know, building a plane could become hell, very easily, not mentioning that the end results might not even fly properly, if not well build. In general, most ARF are ok.
From my own experience, I would recommend as a first plane, a foam plane. Easy to build, with Epoxy or Cyano (verify that it is compatible with the material, before you start gluing). It is also easy to repair... which plays an important role, for beginners.

3. How difficult is it to transport it to the field

Never forget you'll need to carry your planes, from your home to the flying field. Too much big planes, or planes which their wings are made of 1 piece only, can be very not convenient to carry. When you choose the size of your plane, I would always recommend to take the one with the biggest wingspan, but still not too big. 90 cm to 1.4 meter is good (35.4 to 55.1 inches). If the plane is 2 meters, but with 2 wings of 1 meter, it is also fine.
We spend quite sometimes to make these planes look good, fly them carefully to avoid any crash, and then, during the transport, while in the car, or taking them around the house, they get hurt....

This can become a very frustrating moment !, when it happens.

4. How difficult is it to fly it

For example, small planes, even very nice ones and easy to carry, but are not easy to fly. They are very nervous, sometimes, just too nervous, and are also not easy to see, while flying. I would not recommend anything below 90 cm (35.4 inches), wingpan.
Ailerons or not ailerons ? They are 2 schools of thinking here. The 1st one thinks that ailerons/elevator, with very small extensions of the servos, is very easy to control, and teaches much better, faster. The second one believes that using only rudder/elevator, for starting, is easier, safer.

My personal experience tells me that both are fine, and ailerons are nice to have if well configured. This also gives more control to the plane and enables more potential to the plane.

5. How much flying time does it have

Very important as some planes, especially the small ones, can't accept big batteries, and are limited to a certain space/weight. Since they are also lighter, it does not mean they will fly less time. In general, before you buy anything, check that the flying time, using the standard setup provides a minimum of 4 minutes, full speed, and 6 minutes with throttle management. 10 minutes will be even better. anything below won't provide, for a beginner, lot's of pleasure.

6. Do you leave near a location where you will be able to fly it

For example, don't purchase a plane that needs to take off from the ground, if you don't have a proper runway to use.
Don't buy a plane, which is too light, if you plan to fly it outside, knowing it will be windy.
In the same order of idea, don't buy a big plane, that needs space, if you'll plan to fly indoor.

7. Money you want to spend

When you start in this hobby, it is important to know what is the overall cost to have a complete system, ready to fly. All the standard equipment is covered in the next chapter, Start in Electronic Flying. The cost, for a basic setup, could be around $300, all included. But out of this, except the plane, motor, props and the servos, which usually stay in the plane, the rest can be used for other planes, to leverage the investment. Meaning Radio, Receiver, Battery, ESC.

So depending on your budget, you'll have several options, including purchasing a second hand configuration.