If you are a newcomer to radio-controlled model aircraft, you will probably be confused about what you need to buy and how to get started. Following are a few tips which we think will help you get off to a good start:-

1. Join a club. Any club will do, but we hope you will consider LMAS if you live in the area. The main reason is that you will get practical help from other members; but other reasons which you may not have thought of include insurance, transmitter frequency control (how to stop someone else's transmitter from interfering with yours), and permission from local authorities. All of these will be covered by a properly organised club.

2. Don't try to teach yourself. This is almost certainly a recipe for one or more wrecked models, even if you have practised on a computer simulator. A good club will have members who are willing and able to teach you, so go back to 1.

3. Buy a "trainer" model. Don't be tempted to start with a nice looking scale Spitfire. A trainer model will be a high wing model with about a four to five-foot wing span, and your model shop should be able to give advice about a good buy. But for completely impartial advice from people who have flown several trainers, visit your local club first. From recent experience, there are a couple of trainers which we would advise you not to buy - but we can't tell you what they are here for fear of being sued by the manufacturers! An almost ready to fly (ARTF) kit will undoubtedly get you flying quicker but, if you like building, a conventional kit will cost a bit less and will give you experience for when you have to repair it. An ARTF kit will also contain all the accessories you need (such as fuel tank, wheels, connectors, etc.); whereas with a conventional kit you will have to buy them and the covering material separately, so bear that in mind when you are comparing costs.

4. Buy foam wings. Many conventional kits come with the option of foam or built-up wings. Foam wings are a moulded foam core with a thin veneer of wood top and bottom and shaped solid balsa leading and trailing edges. Built-up wings are made up from balsa or hardwood spars with balsa ribs and some balsa sheeting top and bottom. For a beginner the foam wings are better because they take much less building and they're less likely to get badly damaged, but they usually cost a couple of ££s more. Built-up wings take longer and need more care when building, for they can easily end up with a twist in them.

5. Buy ailerons. Many trainer kits come in "3-channel" or "4-channel" versions: The difference is that the 3-channel versions don't have ailerons on the wings - they use rudder to steer, elevator to change height, and throttle to change speed. With four channels, the fourth one is the ailerons which are used to roll the aircraft and, in conjunction with the elevator, to steer it (not as difficult as it sounds!). The reason for advising you to get ailerons at the start is that once you have learned to fly you will want to do some manoevres which can't be done without ailerons, such as rolls. The penalty is that ailerons generally add a couple of ££s to the kit price, plus they require another servo which will cost around £8. Other than that, they don't add anything to the cost of the radio because all basic aero radio sets these days are at least 4-channel, and most of them have capacity for 5 or 6 channels (you plug is extra servos as you need them).

6. Buy good brand name equipment. The kit should tell you what size engine you need - "35" or "40" (i.e. 0.35 or 0.40 cubic inches, or about 5 to 7 cubic centimetres) is the size usually used by the kind of kit mentioned in 3 above. Japanese engines are generally top of the range and reliable, and they do budget lines which are competitive in price. There are also Chinese and eastern European makes which are cheaper but vary in quality and noise output, so check with club members first. Your radio gear will probably be Japanese or British, but you don't need to start off with a "computer" set (though these are coming down in price and do have useful features for the expert). Remember, your engine and radio gear are re-usable in other models and are rarely damaged when the plane crashes, so look on them as a long term investment. If you buy all together, your model shop will probably give you a "deal" price for plane, radio, and engine.

7. If you don't understand, ask for help. If you have never built an airplane kit before, even the best written instructions and drawings sometimes don't make complete sense. Things such as wing dihedral (the amount of vee in the wing), wing symmetry (warps etc.), engine offset (most planes require the engine to be pointing slightly to the right), direction of controls (can usually be changed using switches in the transmitter), installation of servos, and checking of the centre of gravity all contribute to the good flyingcharacteristics of a model but are often confusing to newcomers. So, if you have any problems, take your partly completed model to the club and ask members for help to get it right first time or to correct any errors you've made.

8. Don't buy loads of accessories. Eventually you will want accessories such as fuel pump, engine starter motor, glow plug energiser, flight box, trolley etc., but you can defer expenditure on these for a few weeks so that you can see what other flyers use. In the meantime you can fuel your engine using an old washing-up liquid bottle (some fuel even comes in a small can with a fuelling nozzle) and can start the engine by borrowing someone elses starter motor and glow plug energiser. (But check in case the model shop will give you a price you can't refuse if you buy these as part of the plane "deal".)

9. Take advice on fuel. The experience of our club members is that our local model shop will usually sell the beginner a glow fuel called "GX-5" (different brands will have different names) which uses castor oil and has 5% nitro in it. In our experience some engines, particularly the cheaper ones, seem to run much more reliably if the fuel contains 10% nitro, and run much more cleanly (less exhaust muck all over the plane) if it uses synthetic oil instead of castor. The best advice is therefore probably to buy what the model shop recommends when you buy the engine (castor oil is reputed to be the best for running in), but buy only a small bottle instead of a gallon. That way you can switch to a different mix much sooner if you have reliability problems with your engine.

Note: The above is an opinion only. Go to a club field and talk to experienced flyers before parting with your hard earned cash.