The one question that crops up time and again in my mail box is 'How do I go about learning to fly' ? well with Christmas no doubt bringing lots of models and kits into the hands of raw beginners this is a good time to give advice.
Most people would say join a club ? well I am perhaps going to surprise you all now,by saying this is not the best way to go about learning to fly for many reasons which I wil go into here,firstly although all clubs have some excellent flyers very few of them will have the patience or qualifications to instruct you,on top of this people have very little time themselves and want to fly their own models in the small amount of leisure time that they have available on the flying field,there are exceptions to this however and if you are lucky enough to have a club near you that assists beginners with their own club trainer,and qualified instructor thrown in,then no harm in giving this a try.
From personal experience this has been the case where people have hung around at a model flying club to get in one flight with their model,probably a few circuits by the person who gets the model airborne,usually the model needs trimming out anyway and not suited to the job of model flying tuition.
This in no way is a reflection of model clubs in general,most clubs are geared up only to get people flying for their own pleasure on a field leased or rented from the farmer etc,this effectively gets modellers in an area in one spot,most locations have very few flying areas anyway.
All of this adds to the complications of the beginner who just wants to get flying as quickly as possible in a safe manner,several years ago I recognised the need for model flying tuition and set up my own flying school solely to teach beginners on private land,the idea worked very well if not very demanding on myself the instructor ! it takes a lot of precious time and patience,plus flustrations of the weather interveaning with teaching slots,hard work but rewarding.
The raw beginner can attempt to teach himself but will almost certainly get through a lot of models in the process,in my day this was the only way to go about it but now there are specialist teaching schols set up who cater for say a few days,to a week even months of dedicated tuition,is it expensive ? well how do you consider writing off say several models in learning to fly ? the costs are well re-couped in a dedicated set of lessions tailored to that persons individual requirements.
It will probably also mean waiting a while to organise something but rest assured you will get the best type of instruction to fit your needs whether it be for fixed wing or helicopters.
Whilst talking about model flying instruction, dont forget the excellent flight simulation programmes now on the market,which greatly assist those first steps into flying,you can learn all about orientation,spatial awareness,landings and the positioning of your model from these products,they are more than a computer game but a really useful learning tool both for beginner and more experienced alike.