Just dropped in to introduce myself. Wife and I are retired and have decided to get into scale building. This is a wonderful site from what I`ve seen! Tons of info etc. 

My prediction is that I`ll give you all some chuckles and groans as I just purchased a Ziroli P51D and most of the stuff to get started. Other than 50 years ago I HAVE ZERO EXPERIENCE DOING THIS. Hence the chuckles and groans.

I should explain however that as the former founder/owner of a composites mfg. firm I`m pretty good with my hands and I have plenty of time to go slow. I also have about 3000 hours of left seat time in private aircraft with an instrument ticket. Apparently this will be of no help according to my first attempts with my tiny foam trainer plane.

I`ll be needing input on all the issues I will face. I do have a nice shop with about all the tools , machines you can imagine. Plenty of room to spare as this plane is rather large. 

Being out in the country has lots of advantages with satellite internet not being one of them. Pics are really slow to load so I doubt I`ll be able to give huge levels of pictures like some here have done. 

Thanks for having me!

Don

You are correct about full size flight experience not being too much help, because as you have noticed optically it is different when the model is flying towards you as opposed to flying away from you.  A tip that helped me early on, is to leave your feet planted parallel to the landing strip but turn your body to face the same direction as the airplane, so that when the model is approaching you you are looking back over your shoulder to see it.  Even though you are looking back, the orientation of your body helps you figure out what is what.  Hope you can post pics of your build, it really does help!

you will in good hands for a build, people here are some of the foremost experts in the hobby and always help. Your experience in composites will serve you well; expect questions 

Cheers

Gregg