I started RC years ago with an Alpha AviStar. (not me in the pic, pulled from google).
It was a pretty awesome trainer, very rugged with lots of power. After a while it ended up sitting around the house. The plug in the fuel tank dried out and ended up popping out in flight and nearly crashing it the servoes got dunked in fuel.
After that, we got a couple ParkZone Cubs that were foam and electric. They were only 3-channel (rudder elevator throttle) compared to the 4-channel (aileron) AviStar.
These had been (in my opinion) the best value and easiest things to learn on overall. About 100-120 bucks got you the plane, a car charger, a battery, the transmitter, and 8 AA's for the radio. They were incredibly difficult to kill and super easy to get going. We bought a ton of parts and kept them going for quite some time until we bought a couple more aircraft. Batteries were maybe 6-8 dollars, but they were nickel-cadmium (older and heavier than the lithium polymer ones widely in use today).
After the cubs we were so happy with ParkZone that we bought their P-51 Mustang and Fw-190 Focke-Wulf.
The P-51 was the first thing I'd flown after the Cub and I was totally unprepared for how it was going to fly. It was incredibly fast and it was very finicky at low speeds, much like the real thing. There was no landing gear and you had to keep the power almost all the way to the ground for landing or else you'd snap roll the thing (this happened twice, destroying both). We decided to try the Fw-190 and we were incredibly pleased - it flew great, fast or slow! I ended up convincing a couple guys on the field to buy one after they saw me stall about 4 feet off the ground, correct with full power, and recover perfectly at my low skill level.
These two are actually ones we have.
Both of them are from ElectriFly - the one on the left is the Fokker Dr I and the one on the right is a S.E.5a.
Another caution here - if you are into scale stuff, be careful! The Dr.I was incredibly unstable - it looked amazing in flight, but with the 3 wings, at least one would always be out of line from the others. I had to fight to get it down each time in one piece. After 4 successful flights with it, I landed too fast and flipped it over and took the top wing off.
The S.E.5a is a different story altogether. Stable as all hell, incredibly powerful, comfortable flying full tilt or quarter throttle. The only problem I've had with it overall is that the servo arm on the elevator is stronger on one side than the other - pulling the stick all the way back means you get differential lift from the elevator. Still my absolute favorite to fly.
Dad bought an A-10 as an attempt at ducted fan aircraft. It was a pretty easy starter, so I'd read on the reviews. On the first takeoff, the nose weight glued inside the nose under the refueling marks came loose. The CG varied wildly and I ended up getting it under control finally and brought it back to the ground in one piece. Always check your equipment! I quickly learned that it was a different world than flying the S.E.5a. The props keep the wind over the wing for lift no matter what which makes recovery a breeze. The ducted fan jets absolutely have to keep moving or else they become sluggish and can easily stall out and crash.
And then at the AMA Expo a couple years ago, we got one of these as a sort of move up from the A-10.
Su-35 with two 70mm fans, thrust vectoring, retractable gear, the works. Absolutely beautiful!
After some stick time on the A-10, my dad and I believed that we'd be able to get this thing up and going beautifully - all of the reviews said that it flew on rails, and that it was a medium-expert level ducted fan.
And then we plugged in the ailerons backwards...
My suggestion is to start small. I like electrics because it's quieter, usually you have a pretty good power to weight ratio, you can charge multiple batteries, and you don't have to worry about your engine dying out on you (only happened twice with the AviStar). You don't need a starter or to mess with glowplugs or clean the plane down after you fly it each time, and the CG doesn't change as the fuel runs down either (not much of an effect with trainers, pretty tiny tank). The downside to electrics is that you don't get that noise and if you're not careful you can lose them (the Fw-190 sounded incredibly loud though!). The batteries are finicky and lipo's are nothing to mess with - a ruptured cell can set them on fire, and so can charging them incorrectly. The stuff required to charge bigger batteries and handle different plugs is a bit rough on the wallet but once you get a good one, you can charge all kinds of batteries at once. The initial cost of the batteries and chargers I feel is higher but after you fly a while, the cost evens out.
I also learned to fly on a big open dry lakebed, which made it easy with winds and emergency landings. Thinking I was hot stuff, I took the S.E.5a to a friend's party and tried landing on a small dirt road. I missed and hit a 55 gallon drum, spun the plane around, and then slammed it into the ground. The only damage was the strut came loose and took some of the monokote with it as well as a piece of the balsa. Both were fixed easily in ~10 minutes. Where you learn is important! The AMA (Academy of Model Aeronautics) is a pretty big part of RC flying today, a lot of fields won't let you go there without a membership. It's a yearly fee but you get all kinds of protection insurance wise as well as a few other perks.
I also got one of these as a present for graduation last month. I'm totally new to quadcopters but it's the same premise stick-wise as regular RC's with the ability to fly backwards. Hit a wall and the ground with it maybe 6 times so far at pretty high speed (GF flying
) and it came out fine.
