planes vs helis

I have been flying radio controlled planes for 45 years.I own and fly a 1/4 scale P-51,two pylon racers, and 5 other sport planes. I started flying helis two years ago. Flying planes in a few cases with scale aircraft and planes that fly 130 mph can be pretty difficult at times.I do agree that helis are a bit more difficult to fly.I am fairly sure the reason I believe this is because I am still pretty new to the helis. There is quite a bit more to flying helis vs aircraft.Don't get me wrong,I do agree that helis are harder to learn and fly than the planes.Good luck to those that take on either task.Dougly

Doug McKenzie Flying high,fun,and fast

Planes are easier to fly than helis. You can scratch your nose when you are flying a plane. Flying planes really well is every bit as difficult as flying helis really well.

And another thing, crashing a heli is a whole lot cheaper than crashing a stick built airplane.

Ask your doctor if your heart is healthy enough for Radio Control Helicoptering.

Planes are like a Sunday drive with your grandmother and heli's are like going down a quarter mile in a top fuel dragster.

Planes only have two orientations, helis have 12

Planes can get by with almost no rudder input

Helis constantly need rudder input

Be sure the juice is worth the sqweeze
Remember life is hard...even harder for stupid people

you guys are funny. you think that because you took off and landed some park flyer POS that not only are you now hot airplane pilots, but that the guys that are really good, are really just okay because it must be so easy.

take a 33% 100cc airplane and hold knife edge the length of the runway never letting the lower wing go higher than 5 feet.

fly an 8 pt roll from inverted to inverted

fly a length of the runway slow roll

find the centerline in a crosswind

enter and exit a snap roll with no change in altitude

take a new airplane and set up the mixes and thrust angle so it flies straight up, hands off, and straight down hands off.

then you can tell me how easy airplanes are to fly.

don't forget that some of those old farts who crash their trainers every weekend spent their childhood in B 17s and P 51s flying over Europe or in Corsairs and B 25s over the Pacific

friggen plankers......thats all they do....us on the other hand haha we do everything spinning

xx

Lots/Very high/Ridiculously hard/No you can't

I HEART BLADE FARTS

First time I flew a plank it was a breeze. I still fly a foamie for kicks. Ask a good planker to pull off some backwards circuits on a heli.

I have learned if you move the sticks the right way you wont crash.

Make that backward Inverted circuits.

Damn that ground is hard! When's the right time to get out of this money sucking hobby?

Planes only have two orientations, helis have 12

Planes can get by with almost no rudder input

Helis constantly need rudder input

Ever seen a plane 3d? How about a v-pitch?

Watch at YouTube

Not all airplane pilots can fly helis. But can all heli pilots fly planks?

Generally speaking, yes.

going heli to plank is easy as crap. I got into foamy plank combat with the local club this past year: first time flying a plank, and i was flying the plank better than the heli inside one battery pack.

And for those who say heli pilots cannot land a plane... the only two pilots (out of 6 active participants and 2 occasional) who could hit the spot landing (5-foot square to land the foamy in) consistently were me and the other heli pilot. and no, neither of us hovered it in.

So yeah, my experience thus far speaks that planks are a complete no-brainer once you have flown helis. I am building a Sig Kobra as a winter project, and come spring i expect that experience to continue to bear good fruit.

AMA 700159

This isn't a go at you directly Koppter, but I think it's pretty easy to point to the apex of anything and say, "Look how hard what I do is". I mean, I can freeze the hell out of an icecube but I'm not going to carve it into Christ's likeness with a toothpick.

I actually think people bind far too much into how hard what they do is. This leads to people becoming defensive when there's no need. Planks are awesome - look awesome, sound awesome... It's a simple fact taking off, flying, and landing a fixed-wing RC aircraft is, for heli pilots, a piece of cake. We can to and fro on that and dredge up a Bulgarian who could make the plank dance the Nutcracker too but it's a pretty simple fact immediately evident to any heli pilot who has ever flown a plank for kicks.

Lots/Very high/Ridiculously hard/No you can't

I HEART BLADE FARTS

Interesting debate.

For what it's worth, here's how it seems for me.

In one way, helis are easier to learn. But it takes a lot longer to learn the heli. The main reason I say this is because with a plane, you take off and you are committed. Once you throttle up, you have one chance to learn how to handle it's flying characteristics, all different orientations and then you need to manage landing.
With a heli, you just need to learn a tail in hover and branch out from there. As long as you are conservative on how far you push yourself, crashes are a lot easier to avoid with the heli.
So, the heli requires more coordination of more inputs to get past the initial stage so it's going to take more practice...but it allows you to do it in a more controlled manner. Versus a plane where once you solo, you have to have several things down....but most people can fly them with only 1/2 the controls.

Now, once you get into advanced piloting, I find it hard to say which is more difficult. After all, they do both have the same control inputs.

Team POP Secret

I agree that it is easy to get a plane in the air, fly around, and get it on the ground. I also agree that it is difficult to do those things very well. Helicopters are more difficult to fly in general, but they offer a degree of control that allows you to stay out of the situations that you are committed to with airplanes.

I won't even get into how many go arounds I have done trying to land a plane in a crosswind. I do get a lot of pleasure greasing that perfect, scale looking landing. If I dribble the plane down the runway, I take back off and do the landing again. I will repeat this until I get the landing I was looking for.

As for hovering an airplane, it isn't that easy. It took me quite awhile to get to the point of not trying to control it like a helicopter. Hovering an airplane takes completely different inputs, but once you nail it, it feels pretty awesome. Flying inverted is pretty easy unless you are nose heavy, then you are doing corrective inputs that don't feel right. Snaprolls are pretty fun and pretty easy to learn. Knife edge isn't horribly difficult but again requires inputs that are different from helicopter inputs and not all airplanes can do them well. Inverted flat spins, stuff like that is still beyond me. I find advanced airplane maneuvers to be just as elusive as advanced helicopter moves.

I hate repairing airplanes. I hate the monokote, I hate having to break out the scrollsaw and cutting balsa and thin ply and mixing epoxy and all that. I like that airplanes are surprisingly robust and handle things that destroy helicopters. I like that flying airplanes has helped my helicopter flying.

High wing trainers are near brainless to fly. They are meant to be that way. Once you get into sport aerobatic, scale warbird or 3D planes, the brain needs to be turned on.

And for some reason the old farts will always compliment that greased landing of an airplane but will almost always be indifferent to anything you do with a helicopter.

Heh, ironic, just received my BNF UMX Extra, this little guy will be a hoot for in the house!

...Once upon a time there were Nitros, flybars and frequency pins...

trouble with plane

i do not no any thing about plane i almost crash my friend glider while he have me on the buddy box what a disgrace i went to the ama and saw some jet f14 f15 fa18 for 5 grand that what i want but will need some serious help

I was waiting on some honey but there aren't no Queen bee,

the skill part of flying a plane is landing it

I was waiting on some honey but there aren't no Queen bee,

We are not talking about a skill level just the basics , yes planes do 3d . This debate can go on for years as it has . The bottom line is you like what you like and you take it to the level you want this is where the fun is .I can fly both and get more thrills from helis but enjoy a flight on a plank every once and a while .

I stole it ,flew it and gave it back ;)

Started with helis and now I can and do fly both. Learning how to fly a plane was not that difficult. Flying a 30 percent plus plane 3D is a challenge and not just hovering or torque rolling the thing. Flying planks does help my heli skills. Both disciplines does complement each other.