Tips For Buying Your First RC Plane Or Helicopter

Flying RC planes has become a very popular hobby in recent times. With more and more people taking to flying radio controlled planes as a serious past time, you might find yourself in a lot of exciting company if you have also decided to take up the sport. Flying radio controlled or RC aeroplanes does not limit itself to simply guiding a small toy using a remote control in your hand, but involves a lot of other aspects ranging from construction and assembly to fixing and flying RC aircraft. If you are planning to buy your first RC aircraft, then some of the things that you will need to consider before you pick it up are:

The Amount Of Construction Required:  All radio controlled areoplanes and RC helicopters do not come in a form where you can take it out of the box and fly it. Rather, there are three main categories—Ready To Fly, Almost Ready To Fly and Kit models, depending upon the amount of work you will need to put into the machine before you can have it up and running. As a beginner to radio controlled flying, you will do best with a Ready To Fly RC plane. However, if you like do it yourself jobs, then you may choose a model that needs to be assembled from a kit or take an Almost Ready To Fly one, depending upon how much you like putting things together.

The RC Grade Of The Machine: Radio controlled helicopters and aeroplanes are graded into two categories—toy grade and hobby grade. Toy grade RC machines cost less, have lesser controls, lesser adherence to scaling, lesser functions, dexterity and speed when compared to hobby grade RC aeroplanes. On the other hand, hobby grade models are more complicated and offer more functions, quality, performance, speed and strength. At the same time, they also cost much more than toy grade RC machines.  Choose your RC plane from the toy or hobby grade depending upon your level of commitment to the sport of RC flying.

Type Of RC Flying Machine: RC flying machines can be divided into three broad categories—RC aeroplanes, RC jets and RC helicopters. You might want to select a radio controlled aeroplane as your first flying toy since RC jets are tougher to fly than aeroplanes. Radio controlled helicopters are not only the toughest ones to fly, but are usually the costliest of the lot as well. It is best to try your hands on a simple machine first and then progress to RC helicopters if you want to.

Source Of Energy: Radio controlled helicopters and planes either run on gas or on electric power from a battery. While gas powered RC planes will generally give you more longevity, or even power and speed, using a battery powered one is easier for beginners. Just like an ordinary toy, all you will need when running a battery powered radio controlled helicopter or aeroplane is to charge the battery and you are ready to fly.