Do You Remember Your First RC Flight By James Goss      Now everybody has a story to tell about his or her first RC solo flight and what they remember the most about it. In my case I can remember two instances that I will never forget. Of course the best way to learn RC flying is with an instructor and buddy cord, even though some instructors will disagree with that technique. I had been watching some pilots fly at a local field and thought it would be a lot of fun to try my hand at it. At that time I had been into the electronics end of radio control for some time and had built several transmitters, receivers, and servos from the old Heath Kit Company, and some from scratch, to control a gas engine racecar. This was in 1968 and the integrated chips were just showing up in this branch of electronics. It was a lot of fund to build and test these units. One of the transmitters was a single stick four-channel system that I thought would be a good match for an airplane so I purchased a 60 size ugly stick (big stick) with an os .61 engine. So without any guidance from an instructor I decided I was ready to fly. The next question was where to fly it. Why not fly it from the road in front of my house! It only had a few curves in it and tall pine trees on each side that gave about 40 feet clearance down the road. “How much room do I really need”? This should be plenty of room and it sounded like the perfect location because no one would be around to see my first flight.      It was about 2:00 p.m. on a cloudy Saturday and the traffic on the road was at a standstill. I informed my wife and three kids that if they wanted to see daddy fly his airplane they had better come outside, because I was already gassed up and more than ready to go. I taxied onto the road and gave my family a big smile and wave; I just knew they were going to enjoy this flight. I wasn't nervous at all( I didn't know enough to be nervous) when I gave it maximum throttle and I was on my way up the middle of the road. It was a beautiful takeoff and the flight lasted for about 3 seconds. The plane went up and stalled, did a maneuver that I now know as a hammerhead, and hit smack dab in the middle of the road. Hmmm!!! Taking off is easy but landing is a little harder than I first thought; maybe I do need some flight instructions after all. I can still see my kids laughing and jumping up and down. I remember asking them “what was so funny” because I was not laughing. Amazingly enough the plane was not totaled and was repaired.      Knowing that an instructor was necessary if I didn't want to destroy my plane, I befriended a couple of nice gentlemen that agreed to help me learn to fly RC. No trainer cord was used; the instructor would just take over if I needed help. I had a couple of lessons and everything seemed to be going fine and dandy, I was almost ready to take off on my own. My two sons and I arrived at the field one Sunday on a cold day in February eager for my next lesson, but the instructor did not show up. I told my sons that I believe I can take this plane up and fly for a little while and then land it with no problem. They ask me if I was sure about that so I replied with confidence, sure!!! So I decided to do just that, I had a good takeoff and was flying some small circles around the field when all of a sudden the wind started to blow extremely hard. My plane got farther and farther away from me and I couldn't get it to fly toward the field. Before long it was so tiny I couldn't tell if it was going or coming. When it finely went down it was almost out of sight about ¾ of a mile away. We started walking toward the general direction that we thought it went down. About halfway there we came upon a small creek that we would have to cross to get to the location of the plane. It was cloudy and a very cold day so I told my sons to be sure and not get wet or they would freeze. I walked the creek bank until I found what I thought was a safe place to cross. The waterway was narrow at this point and had a good-looking sandbar on the other side about six or seven feet away. The bank was about four feet above the sandbar so I was sure we could jump it with no problem. I told my sons that I would jump first and then they could follow me. It wasn't going to be a running jump, just a flat-footed jump. So on the count of three I took a giant leap and away I went. When I landed on the other side my feet sunk about six inches in the wet sand and stuck to it like suction cups. My feet stopped but the rest of me did not, I landed face first in the creek and still couldn't get my feet loose. As I remember my sons didn't have any trouble getting across.      When we arrived at the crash cite we got another surprise, the model was in the top of a tree. This tree was the tallest tree around and did not have any limbs near the ground for climbing. There was a tree next to it that had a long Tarzan vine on it so I told my sons that I thought I could swing the vine over to the tree that housed our plane, bump the plane and it would gently drop to the ground. An hour later I was still swinging that vine. The plane, or what was once a plane, would not give up and was now beat to a pulp but I wanted that receiver. We had no recourse but to start throwing rocks at it, and with the combination of the vine and rocks; it finally came down to earth. I decided then and there that I would not try to fly again until I had the experience of several take offs and landings with an instructor under my belt.               I have known many newcomers to the hobby that thought they could take their plane up and land it without any help from anyone. After having gone through my own experiences I would believe anything, but this hobby does take skill and the best way to obtain an adequate skill level is with hands on experience under supervision from an experienced pilot. It doesn't seem to do any good if you tell someone that they shouldn't try it on their own because they will more than likely go ahead anyway, just like I did. I bet all of you that have been in this hobby for a few years will know someone that has went through this, maybe yourself! With the cost of RC equipment today why take a chance, get an instructor for your first few flights and you will be glad you did. I had to learn the hard way, but I wouldn't take anything for those fun memories.      I would like to issue a challenge to all club members to write an article about their first solo flight, or about someone they know who didn't follow the normal procedure in learning to fly. I am surely not the only person to have gotten off to a slow start or to get stuck in a sandbar while learning RC. Just think about it for a while and all those affectionate memories from the past will become visible again.

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