Guides for beginners

Learn to fly RC planes

Three guides to the three things every new RC pilot has to get right: the first flight, the stall, and the landing. Each one is written from Openflight's flight model and its sources, and from the FAA's flight training handbook, so the advice matches how planes really fly.

• How to fly an RC plane for the first timeGround checks, the sticks in Mode 1 and Mode 2, takeoff into the wind, the first circuit, trim and coming home.
• Stalls and spins: why RC planes stall and how to recoverAngle of attack, the low slow turn onto final, tip stalls, spins, and the recovery steps in order.
• How to land an RC planeThe circuit, a steady approach, the flare and touchdown, crosswinds and go-arounds.

Before you start

Nothing replaces an instructor at a club, and the guides say so where it matters. They are here to help you understand what your instructor is teaching, and to give you a plan to practise. The cheapest place to practise is a simulator, where a crash costs nothing.

Practise in Openflight

Openflight is a free RC plane simulator that runs in your browser: trainers, gliders, aerobats, warbirds and floatplanes over an alpine valley, with your own transmitter, a gamepad or the keyboard. It is coming soon.

About Openflight