Electrics -Tutorial

I'm no expert on electric flight so I'm just putting down some of the things which I have learned in the hope that it will make it easier for those who follow. There is nothing here which is very difficult to find or to understand but I hope that by consolidating it I will save you a bit of searching time.

If you need information on general R/C flying have a look at my Beginner's Pages first.

If you're in the UK you have a specialist Electric flight group BEFA (British Electric Flight Association) available. If you haven't already joined then I suggest you do so. There is a wealth of help and information available so check out the BEFA website and join up. We'll be glad to meet you.

I can also recommend the UK based magazine Quiet and Electric Flight International (QEFI) which is available world-wide. Although no longer devoted entirely to Electric Flight it's still one of the better magazines around. Subscriptions available via the Traplet Publications website. Of course electric flight is getting more and more mainstream so there is also plenty of coverage in the major R/C magazines now.

The areas of electrics that I will be trying to cover (it will take a while) are :

Technical

Model types

If you don't want to get into all that detail yet there are now very many electric models available which will get you started with very little fuss. A couple of years ago your only real choice was either an electric glider or one of the few specialist electric trainers. Although these are still available today (2003) many people will get going with one of the many RTF (Ready to Fly) or ARTF (Almost Ready to Fly) "Park Flyers" which are available. Things like the Picostick or the newer Slowstick or the Firebirds/Fighterbirds/Aerobirds/AngelXLs etc. will get many people started. They are generally a bit limited, in particular they will only fly in very light breezes, but they will get you in the air.