stunner

I am thining of buying a NexSTAR 46 Select. I am not a first time piolet but this will be my first glow plane. I have heard however that the o.s. 46 engine is unreliable. Please tell me if I should go with anityher plane. Also I was thinking of buying a Hobbistar 60. These planes are about the same price. Please give me details about both planes. thanks

Murdoc

if you allready have a radio, it would be kindof stupid to buy a complete package with radio!
But when that"s said: both of them are good fliers.
i havent seen the hobbystar 60 in action, but i"ve heard alot positive comments of it!
the nextstar is also a joy! no problems with the os engine as far as i know

knightmagic

My Feedback: (1)

had nexstar engine was great in it but however if I had it to do again would go with another trainer nexstat just not as aerobatic as other trainers

adstott

The best engines I have ever owned have been O.S. It is possible to buy the nexstar without the radio and engine if you like the plane.

Murdoc

can you buy the nextstar as an arf?
i agree that os are good engines, i"ve only owned a 25 la, but it started allways on 1-2 flicks!!
and they also use less fuel then other engines...

mblue2050

My Feedback: (6)

I also have have very good comments for the OS engines. Never had a problem with 3 different OS two strokes.

I did the RTF Avistar to start myself. If I had it to do over I would have bought a computer radio instead of the anolog 4. However all of my planes could still be flown with the 4. For me it was a short time indeed before I needed or wanted more radio abilties. For a trainer with the one servo for the ailerons 4 channels are fine. Get past the trainer and want more....that is just me.

Murdoc

thats what i had in mind when i buyed my trainer, so i went for a hitec laser6.
not a computer radio but it has all i need, vtail mix and elevon mix and some dualrate[8D]

CGRetired

My Feedback: (1)

First of all, a trainer is not designed to be aerobatic. It is designed to fly and to provide an easy way for new RC training pilots to learn to fly without the problems that aerobatic aircraft can give you. The NexSTAR does that and more. The Hobbistar 60 is larger than the NexSTAR and will be that much easier to fly.

The OS engine on the NexSTAR is totally reliable and powerful enough to pull around that heavy NexSTAR. I know, I have one and used it for three months of instruction before I solo'ed. After solo, however, it's trainer style design makes aerobatics a bit difficult, although it will so some... SOME of the maneuvers. It does not fly inverted very well, and aileron rolls are a tad sloppy, needing a lot of elevator input during the roll. Again, that is by design. The plane is designed to self-right itself during times of stress (meaning that if the pilot lets go of the controls, it will eventually come to wings level by itself, under most circumstances, and if you fly it high enough).

The NexSTAR comes in both ARF and RTF forms now, so you can put whatever radio and engine combination you wish (with the ARF version). The RTF comes with the entry level non-computer Futaba and the OS 46 FXi engine. Both are a great combination for that aircraft, however, the radio does not allow itself to be used on multiple aircraft like most computer radio's on the market. If you want that capability, then buy the ARF and use a computer radio. On mine, I removed the Futaba and put in my Airtronics RD6000 computer radio. Then, after I solo'ed, I was still able to use the NexSTAR but I could also use my RD6000 transmitter on my next plane which was (still is) a Tiger 60. I just bought a new channel 42 receiver and five servo's.

For someone to say the NexSTAR is not aerobat enough does not understand why it is a trainer.

Murdoc

i think all of us know that trainers are to learn on and not for aerobatic.
but i have to say that i"ve seen some trainers that is fairly acro.... anyway, the nextstar is a nice trainer designed for first time pilots, and i think it lives up to its name

CGRetired

My Feedback: (1)

Hi Murdoc.. I didn't mean to throw stones at you, my point was just that trainers are just for that. Yep, some are more aerobatic, but are less of a basic trainer than those that are not aerobatic, by design.

I have a Midwest Aerobat. It claims to be a good AEROBATIC trainer, but it has pretty much no dihedral and has a semi-symmetrical wing design and flys very fast for a trainer. Some have said that it would make a good trainer, however if you ever flew one, it is definitely a second aircraft, not a first, but with that said, it does fly very nicely and predictable which trainers do.

I also agree that it is nice to have a trainer that will do aerobatics, but basics of flight are the primary purpose of a basic trainer. Just think.. if you are able to force a basic trainer to do some of the aerobatic maneurvers, how easy it will be to do them with a plane that IS capable of doing aerobatics!!! Thus, bait for a second plane!! That's why I chose the Tiger 60 for my second. It is big, with a large wing and lots of wing area, and thus flys somewhat like a trainer, however, it IS a low wing semi-symmetrical, and has a .75 size engine and flys like a dream. I do all of the Sportsman level aerobatics with it with ease. The moves are not as pretty as they would be with a pattern plane, but it does them.

There are a lot of posts where a person that has never flown RC is looking into starting out with say an P-51D. Yep, they look great, but are not trainers. It's like they say... learn to crawl before learning to walk.. and so on.

The original post was comparing the NexSTAR with the Hobbistar 60. If given the choice, and after flying for a while now, I would probably go with the larger Hobbistar 60 because larger is better (to an extent), even though I really loved my NexSTAR. Mainly because the larger aircraft (like my Tiger 60) are, seem to be, a tad bit more stable and easier to see, thus easier to fly.

Great stuff, this RC flying, isn't it!!!

DS

Murdoc

thats true, trainers are trainers and no more than that.
my second plane was a cap 232 and i have to say that the aerobatic that i did with my trainer was completed with ease with my cap 232!
so a good advice is to jump of the trainer level as soon as you feel you"re ready to move on.
and yes.. rc flying is GREAT!!!!!!!!

CGRetired

My Feedback: (1)

Yep. I'll never forget the feeling I had after moving up to the Tiger 60. I had an OS61SF (older engine that I bought at a yard sale..ha) that I played with, prop wise, until I got the right combination which ended up being the 13-6 by the way. This really woke that plane up. The feeling I had, after getting the prop right (that was on the same day as I maiden'ed the thing), to go vertical, accelerate, then cut the throttle and do a really pretty stall-turn (hammerhead) followed by a straight down with two aileron rolls followed by a smooth transition to horizontal flight.. well, that was something I tried with the NexSTAR but it just would not go the distance. Everything I tried to do except level flight was sloppy.

Then I moved into the Tiger 60 and did the move as stated above. What a feeling that was!!! Hey.. I could do it!! Then, the more I flew the Tiger 60, the more I realized that the trainer was just that.

Know what irritates me now? Well, I took the NexSTAR up for a flight a short while ago. I had a tough time flying it!! Ha.. what a funny day that was.. bounce landings, sloppy approaches.. really sick looking. But, my instructor was there. He just laughed and told me that this was common after flying a plane with real capabilities. You come to expect everything you fly will be just as capable. So what makes the trainer so good at being a trainer becomes a real pain after flying something as capable as the CAP232 or the Tiger 60.

Aaaanyway, good flying to you and may all your landings be right side up and on all three points!!!

DS.

britbrat

Guys, all trainers are aerobatic -- Nexstar included. It's the pilots who aren't entirely comfortable with flying them in aerobatic evolutions. The Nexstar is quite capable at basic-intermediate aerobatics, including inverted flying & outside loops. It can even hover & do knife-edge.

Worrying about whether or not your trainer can do aerobatics is putting the cart before the horse -- learn to fly well -- then learn to do aerobatics with the trainer. You will be better pilots for doing so. Any minimally competent pilot can do aerobatics in a CAP, Extra or U Can Do --- but good pilots can do it impressively well with trainers & they can make aerobats sing & dance.

knightmagic

My Feedback: (1)

Know what a trainer is for and yes nexstar was good for what I learned but after flying other trainers I feel that I would have progress faster because of their flying characteristic nexstar just floated like a big kite

britbrat

knightmagic, I am not being disrespectfull when I say that you are missing the point about the Nexstar.

I think that the Nexstar is a revolutionary training tool --- it is literally all things to all pilots. It is the ONLY glow trainer on the market that gives a complete newb a realistic chance at teaching himself & staying in one piece. It is the ONLY trainer on the market that can effectively deal with the entire spectrum of student capabilities, from the completely ham-handed, to the "natural" flier. The various bits & pieces of aerodynamic aids supplied with the Nexstar make it an amazingly adaptable model. With everything stuck on, it can virtually fly itself, and with everything removed & the throws cranked right up it is a good basic aerobatic trainer.

With the aero aids removed it reaches nearly 70 mph in level flight (try that with an LT 40) and can be fairly easily made into an aerobatic hod-rod, or a very good float plane with aerobatic capability.

No other trainer out there can cover all of those bases --- and its price is competitive as either an ARF, or as the complete Select package.

BlenderBender

I learned to fly with a hobbistar 60 and with the semi symetrical wing it does have its advantages went you progress into some mild aerobatic's ...I can say it was a sweet heart to fly!

John