(THEY ARE NOT TOYS!!!)
First i will start with trainers aircrafts then go into more scale models. You will see the difference between them and will understand why i asked Mohsin not to get scale cool looking model as first airplane.
All the aerodynamics are same on these as on real ones. For the most part wing design on an aircraft has a lot to with the flying capabilities and performance of that aircraft, that means types of airfoils used on them as there many many different types of airfoils out there, all have there benefits to the requirements needed for particular application.
For most of the trainers in RC models flat airfoil or semi-symmetrical is used with lots of dihedral built into the wing and also wash out at the trailing edge tips of the wings. With flat airfoil wing, it gives an airplane tons of lift and very less aspect of stalling easily, plus with lots of dihedral it helps in flying stable and smooth. Trainer aircrafts have straight wings with big wingspans as 60" to 80" with wide chords, this helps in orientation for newbies getting into rc flying plus trainers fly at slower speeds also.
When you are learning you need a lot time to react if you make mistake, with these flat airfoil wing models you get that time to correct your mistake without stalling or losing control right off the back. Plus dihedral also helps aircraft to correct itself while flying. On the other end scale models are designed and built from actual factory drawings and 3 views of real aircraft and uses scale airfoils, this means you have to know how to fly and control the model as if you made an error, you have split second to react and you better know what to do or your model will crash and get destroyed instantly!!
You can chose variety of 2 stoke and 4 stoke engines of many different brands out there, good ones are OS, Thunder Tiger, Super Tiger, ASP. Depending size of your trainer airplane you can go with .40sz and up to .60sz of engines.
Now days you can buy 90% already built models from local hobby shops and with in few hours of final assembly your model is ready for flight, these are also known as ARF models, mind you some are of very good and high quality but others are very very inferior as the case is with Vmar models, Stay away from them!, they are cheap to buy but cheap enough that there wings fold while flying them!!
As for controls, all you need is basic 4 channel controller system that has TX= Transmitter, RX= Receiver, 4 standard servos, RX battery pack and a switch that goes in the model to turn it's electrical power on or off.
For this Futaba has good systems, JR also are good brand and now days Hitec is also very comparative specially on flight packs.
You will also need to buy field box to start and do field maintenance once you are at flying field. This includes 12V Starter, 12V Battery pack, Fuel bottle, Refueling pump manual or electronic, screw drivers, spare glow plugs and anything extra you may want to carry with you at the field so you don't have run back home once at the field.
Now when you get your model all ready for flying with engine and electronics all installed there is something very very important that is a MUST for all types of airplanes including real ones!!, it's call CG balance!
CG stands for "center of gravity" and is needed for any plane to actually fly!, if you didn't do this balance then your flight will be mere couple of seconds and model will crash, when aircraft is designed CG is determined on it's wing's design. You have to add weight according to this CG point to keep the airplane balanced in air by itself. So to do that either you have add weight in the nose or in the tail but nose heavy airplane is far far better then tail heavy plane. You can always fly nose heavy plane but you CAN'T fly tail heavy plane as it will stall on takeoff and crash right away, plus when you balance the model it's done without fuel in it as fuel adds weight to the model and when engine is running, fuel is burning and weight is shifting from heavy to light all the way to none at all!, so this is why we do this CG balance without fuel in the model aircraft so if and when airplane while flying runs out of fuel and engine quits, it can glide back to the runway for safe landing.
I will add more to it at later time as it's 240AM here and time to hit the sack..hehe
.. lol.. i kinda like the NEXStar RTF SuperStar... is it anygood from ur experience... because everywhere it says its the best notro rainer...
