First succesful solo flight! Cheers Mike!

[Andypandy]

Well, just came back from a succesful maiden flight of a GWS Tiger Moth.

This is only the second time I've flown a 'real' model aircraft. My first attempt (with a Spatz electric powered glider thingy) ended up with the model a complete write off!

I downloaded FMS. Practiced like mad on that, until I could fly anything on the program (including the heli's) and it seems to have paid off.

Apart from a slight breeze, which almost resulted in the model flying backwards at one point! Plus a couple of abortive take offs (it's a shame FMS doesn't allow for ground effect or wind) I had the ol' Tiger up in the air and trimmed out, and flew for a good 10 minutes- bliss!

Bought her into land, not the cleanest of landings I guess, but it all stayed in one piece.

With Irvine's little Lithium battery packs, and a decent amount of dihedral
dialed in, the GWS Tiger is a really nice little model to learn on.

If you have a PC and fancy a go at flying, then I can't praise FMS highly enough.
It's a wicked piece of software, and I'm certain I wouldn't have been so successful on my second outing without the 'virtual' crashes (numerous) that helped me get used to the sticks!

Andy

[Sturdy Birdy 10]

did you start off with basic planes?

[Andypandy]

In the simulator I started off with the slow fly electric and the Silkywind 400.

Both are very stable and very easy to fly, they are also very accurate to the response you will get from the 'real' thing.

The Silkywind was my personal favourite.

I then worked my way onto the pitts special, which I found difficult to fly at first, but now it's easy.

When you first start out with aileron control, it does help to select the exponential option in the mapping/calibration section.

Other favourites include the Fokker DR1 and Litemoth models.

Te latter emulates the GWS Tigermoth, and does a reasonable job, although the FMS model tends to dive in a turn.

The genuine article is nicer to fly in this respect, as it doesn't have that anomaly!

Andy