My eight year old has put an RC airplane on her Christmas wish list. Instead of just buying whatever Flytingoob branded RC airplane there is on Amazon within a reasonable price range, I thought it might be a good idea to seek out advice from people that have actually flown RC planes. Anybody here have a good suggestion for an RC airplane that's good for an 8 year old to get started on? Budget is hopefully less than $150? I see some neat looking ones on Amazon for $40-$50 but I have no idea if any of them are any good. Thanks!
I bought this one a few years ago for my oldest one to start with. It was pretty good for the price and quite good at absorbing the first inevitable hits.
I think the one I bought is the one that goes for $11x now.
BTW, it still works well after a couple of years, so not a high end plane but not throwaway either.
Can't offer a comparison to the prior suggestion, but this one has a couple of levels of "safe" mode to prevent overdoing the inputs and/or return to straight/level flight if you let go of the controls
(none of which prevented me from flying it into trees, the roof and finally the side of my shop. I haven't reglued the motor back to the airframe after that last incident, but it reinforces my opinion that while I love planes in general and the concept of private aviation, full-scale flight is an activity probably best left to those who are a bit less accident-prone than I .... ;) )
NB: It needs really calm conditions to fly, just a couple of MPH breeze and it's a handful. As are all the models in this category, I would imagine.
https://www.towerhobbies.com/product/sport-cub-s-2-rtf-with-safe/HBZ44000.html
Driven5
UberDork
12/13/22 4:04 p.m.
Horizon Hobby Sport Cub S RTF.
Edit: Beat to the punch, but it's definitely the one I would/will go with for if/when my kids want one. Of course then I'd need to pick up a Timber, to take out with them. Like my ukulele, I have enjoyed the extreme portability of these ultra-micros.
In reply to eedavis :
Yep, the one I linked has a safe mode. I find that the safe modes are "extremely" safe though and you end up flying straight as it will greatly limit your inputs. We used it the first day and then stopped.
The Tower Hobbies might have a better safe mode though.
Whichever you get, order a couple of extra props just in case. We went through a few at first.
Read title and thought "look under the couch"
Driven5 said:
Horizon Hobby Sport Cub S RTF.
Edit: Beat to the punch, but it's definitely the one I would/will go with for if/when my kids want one. Of course then I'd need to pick up a Timber, to take out with them. Like my ukulele, I have enjoyed the extreme portability of these ultra-micros.
You don't want ailerons for a beginner. 3 channels are still a challenge, but still fun. Look at something from Horizon. The Duet is a 3 channel twin. It's on backorder from Horizon itself, but its possible to find elsewhere. Regardless , Horizon's customer service is good if you encounter any problems.
linky
better linky
dunno how you feel about building & flying... but FlightTest has a bunch of easy to build out of foam board kits they laser cut... plus a pretty sizeable YouTube channel and user-base to help with "hot to build it".
I was going to suggest the "Old Fogey Speed Build" kit... or the "Tutor" kit... but it looks like some of the "turn key, check out, build, then fly" might be a bit further out than just sending a couple links.
But, then I saw their STEM kits:
https://store.flitetest.com/ez-bundles/
if you bought these two (which you can do with the radio button on the 'ft-ez3' link):
https://store.flitetest.com/flite-test-ft-stem-ez-power-pack-2-channel/
https://store.flitetest.com/ft-ez3-first-flyers-mkr2/
you'd have a bunch of early lessons about flying, and aircraft design, and the ability to try out new ideas. Maybe that's a bit beyond y'all right now. But, might be good to know for later/others?
actually... I should probably pick up one of the glider kits for the sleepykids to fly down at the in-law's place. hrrmrmmm
Driven5
UberDork
12/13/22 6:39 p.m.
In reply to Appleseed :
Apparently the self leveling and bank limits of the beginner level SAFE setting make it as beginner friendly as a 3-channel, but without the limitations as the kids (and/or parents) skills grow... Assuming it lives that long in the first place. Price wise it is hard to beat the Duet for something a kid is likely to trash or lose interest in before getting to that point though.
You want something tough. You want one of the flite test planes. You want to be able to survive hard landings and lots of mistakes. You can fly pretty later.
Perhaps start him with a Control Line Airplane.
They're powered model airplanes, but instead of being independently flying full RC, they use a pair of cables that connect to a single handle. You stand in the center, and the airplane flies in a circle around you. The two cables control the elevator, so you control the pitch, and can do things like loops.
Very simple to control and get a sense of how it flies with effectively no risk of losing control and having it fly someplace you don't want it to.
Thank you for all the recommendations! I ended up ordering the Duet from Horizon; they came back in stock and it looked like a good starting place. She may be a bit young for it still but we'll give it a shot.
