Wednesday, February 6, 2008

My ONLY Depron (the enemy) Plane


First Trainer

My first “trainer plane” was the Slow Stick. As you can see from the pictures, it’s a plane that can be highly modified. I put floats on mine – some other guys have put camera’s on theirs – even camcorders… as its got allot of lift.

If you take my advice on buying a flight simulator (soon to be posted, under “Flight Simulators” in the right hand column) you won’t need to get a “trainer plane” – you will be able to skip this. But, if you’d like something to putz around with – or to fly off the water – this is a tough plane to beat. My 6oz 3D planes can’t fly off water – neither can they carry cameras – and… they are not easy for the novice to fly! J

One thing I like doing with this plane is to hand over the sticks (transmitter / controller) to a bystander I just met when flying at a park! I have a trainer box (dummy transmitter) linked by a cable to my transmitter. This allows them to actually control the airplane… but, if they get in trouble… I can release a button on my controller, and I’ve got control of the plane again. J Nice! The other planes you see on this site – the 3D planes – they are WAY to nimble – quick… or “twitchy” is how a novice would describe them. Things happen too fast with them to hand over the controls to a novice – but, with the SLOW Stick… everything happens very SLOW. Slow enough to let a novice fly it (as long as I still have them linked so I can bail them out when they get in trouble… as they WILL BE getting in trouble! J)

One last note on this plane. It fly’s gently – but with authority with a brushless motor. It will do loops, and with good thumbs (ie, in the hands of a decent pilot) it will fly inverted. That’s it. This is NOT an acrobatic plane by any means. It is however – a great plane. Its THE ONLY depron (the enemy) plane I recommend. Because of how big it is & how slowly it flies – it really is pretty durable. I primarily bought it for my boys (who were 8 & 10 at the time) to have to fly. This was BEFORE I discovered Epp. This remains a great plane however, which is why I included it. Flying off floats was / is a blast. For something similarly easy to fly (but smaller for indoor flying & without as much lift) in Epp, check out Jimmy Wades site (alphafoamies) and his plane the EPP Jenny.