Best Value RTF Model

All sound advice – thanks.:)

but when researching the web some claimed there were performance issues

A modeler should definitely research anything he or she may be considering for purchase. Doing so saved me from buying several problematic planes in the past few years.

Another kit worth considering is the GWS Tiger Moth 400.Its a very slow flying and stable electric artf and fairly scale like in appearance.As long as you build light its a very forgiving flyer.

Silverlit are more toy end of the market. They are good value and do what they do fairly well but have very limited capabilities – As you said you really do get what you pay for in RC models.
The advice is as before – spend a bit more at the beginning and you will land up with something capable, repairable and durable. There have been one or two good value second hand items on Ebay recently so it will probably pay to have a look there but do your research before commiting to buy.
I was very tempted by a Jamara Piper Cub at £40 the other day but when researching the web some claimed there were performance issues and then I found another website offering them on clearance for less than £40 so I didn’t bother particularly as I want a good quality camera lense and couldn’t really spare money for both.

Now someone has affered me a Silverlit. Anyone know anything about them? They are cheap so I suppose you “get what you pay for”.:(

Enjoy it, Sky High!

Great – thanks Flying-A, I will keep an eye out for it over the next few weeks.
SH

SkyHigh:

This is the Champ I have:

http://www.horizonhobby.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=HBZ4900

I bought mine in September 2010 and the link above states that it’s coming in March 2011, so I presume that it refers to a second production run. However, individual retailers or distributors may have some of the first run Champs in stock.

It should be available in the UK — after all, it has the registration G-FLYR!

I can only find the Mini-Aeronca Champ on UK websites – is this the one you refer to. There is another on Hobbyzone USA.

HobbyZone’s Aeronca Champ has gotten great reviews from magazines and users — including yours truly. I’ve found it to be well designed, well made, easy to fly, and quite sturdy.

More good advice and much appreciated.:) It will all be considered before making a decision during the Spring – ready for the Summer flying season!!

Sorry Didn’t get back to this thread until now. Although I have never actually got around to flying RC I have built free flight models and as a lad spent all my Sunday mornings at the local RC flying field until I got involved with restoring full size at what was then our local museum.
I have often fancied the idea of electric RC so I have done a fair bit of reading and research over the past few years and having been involved in the model trade for nearly 30 years I have picked up a lot of advice from people within the trade as well which was how I was able to offer some advice.
I see Robbo has suggested the Hobbyzone Super Cub, an ideal choice along with some of the high wingers from the Parkzone range. The great thing about both ranges is that you can buy spare parts from most local radio control shops or from the internet. Just steer clear of the Mustangs and Spitfires as anything low wing will be fast and very responsive (just like the real thing) – not what a beginner needs.
Anything half decent is probably going to cost around £100 or more new but £100 spent on something durable with good spares back up will, in a matter of weeks, be far less expensive then something cheaper which you have to throw away the first time you have a serious accident. Many of the cheaper models have cheap rc gear which is encapsulated inside the fuselage and can’t be reused. The better quality models have RC gear with better build quality and it is removable so it can be transplanted into a more advanced model as your skills improve.
If you can’t afford new then you can usually find a few on Ebay. Avoid the badly bent ones as hard crashes can damage the RC gear, especially the receiver, but you will find a few which are lightly used and haven’t been abused. Just research new prices on the web to get an idea of what anything secondhand is worth and be prepared to walk away if it gets too expensive.

Many thanks, Robbo.

Thank you very much WJ244, for taking the trouble to post such helpful and detailed thoughts. I will certainly take the advice and postpone any decisions until I know more about it and can make a considered choice. Another few months will not matter if we get what we feel is right for the job. I know I can start searching around but to get the sort of aircraft you have been talking about on ebay are we looking at £100 plus or…..?

Unfortunately for £25 to £50 you will find a few toyish items which claim to fly but have little or no performance and are extremely disappointing.
You really need to spend more than £50 to get something worthwhile which will give you and the youngster hours of pleasure rather than hours of frustration. I know the bigger financial commitment at the beginning may be a bit daunting but Ready to Fly RC is one of those items where you get what you pay for and generally speaking if the new price seems too good to be true it almost certainly is and sooner rather than later you will be puting your hand in your pocket again for something half decent.
A few years ago I bought a twin engined pusher job callled Bluebird from Ebay for my grandson. It was 2 channel throttle and steering. Steering was by thrust steer which basically killed the power to one motor to yaw the aeroplane. Problem was unless you do very long very gentle turns the loss of thrust on one side means such a huge loss of airspeed that the aircraft falls out of the sky. It also had the centre of gravity way too far back meaning that when it did get airborne it flew in a series of progressively more violent swoops and stalls until it hit the deck. I moved the battery and anything else I could manage to move further forwards to address the CG problem but I still had to add loads of ballast to get the CG right. It was then so overweight that it could barely get airborne at all even from a hand launch.
My advice would be to stick with the established names like Hobbyzone, Parkzone and Kyosho amongst others as the well known brands generally provide good spares back up and as a beginner you will need spares back up because you will inevitably break props and bits of the airframe and that cheapie won’t seem so cheap when you can’t replace a bent wing, tailplane or even fuselage after an unplanned arrival on terra firma.
The Hobbyzone Firebird series have had good reviews and although they don’t have a particularly exciting performance and need calm flying conditions they will teach the basics and are generally fairly benign if things do go wrong.
The other alternative would be something like a Piper Cub or any other high winger (as they are much more stable then low wing and have a lower flying speed and lower stalling speed) BUT check out the model you intend to buy by doing a websearch of the RC forums before committing to parting with your money as there are some very good ones out there and also some pretty awful ones as well which suffer with lack of power and some of the cheapies are made from low quality foam which doesn’t “bounce” very well.
Another alternative is to keep an eye on Ebay. If you spend a bit of time acquiring some knowledge from the web, or by buying one of the electric filght mags, so that you know what you are looking at there are bargains to be had where people have bought RC and then found it is not for them.

Saw this B17-ish thing in Maplin before xmas:
Maplin plane
Don’t know whether it’s any good, but it looks fun.