bigedmustafa

My Feedback: (2)

My first glow trainer was a Nexstar Select RTF. I bought it back in April 2005 and I learned to solo with it. Shortly after I solo'd, a flight instructor was showing me how to do touch and goes and lost it due to lack of radio response. I had put it into a tree a few weeks earlier on a long landing approach, I decided that another rebuild wasn't worth the time.

Rather than lose valuable flying time, I bought a used Hangar 9 Easy Fly 40 trainer from a local hobby store that sometimes sold such things. I think I paid $45 for it, and it came with a Hobbico aileron servo and Fults landing gear. I flew that trainer for the remainder of 2005 and all of 2006. It was an ugly plane with a wing that sat crooked in the saddle, a tail that sat crooked on the fuselage, and landing gear that hung oddly bent from the belly of the plane. It flew good, though.

For the spring of 2007, I decided to treat myself to a new trainer. I bought a Tower Hobbies .40 MkII ARF and stuck my Easy Fly .40 away in the garage. I loved the Tower Trainer .40 MkII ARF and flew it a great deal all through the year. I set it up with full throws and found it to be surprisingly aerobatic. When our club auction rolled around in October, I sold the Easy Fly .40. In early November, I took the Tower Trainer out flying on a day with gusty wind conditions. As I was bringing it in over the runway, a huge gust of wind popped up the nose of the plane while it was about ten feet above our asphalt runway. The plane flipped over upside down and backwards and splattered on it's back onto the runway before I could do anything except blink.

I loved my Tower Trainer, but I thought I'd try something different. I'd loved my Hangar 9 Easy Fly 40 as well, so I thought I'd give Hangar 9 another try. I ordered a H9 Solo Star .40 ARF, and I've been flying it through 2008 so far.

The Solo Star is a pretty good package overall, but there are a couple of things about the plane that are bugging me. The covering sucks. The Solo Star is a Value Series ARF, and it uses a shelf paper type covering rather than Ultracote. It splits easily and wrinkles don't respond very well to heat. I already have enough box tape on the wings that you'd think I've been flying it for a couple of seasons already. The wing tips also feature plastic caps instead of being finished with covering. They look pretty good though, and the plastic isn't brittle, so they're not too awful.

The other problem is that I can't get the ailerons to move. The torque rod setup just keeps getting jammed up and I can't get any significant roll rates out of it. I've tried carving out the torque rod channels, flexing the control surfaces by hand to "stretch" the range of movement, and trimming the plastic wing tip caps away from the ailerons, but to no avail. My original Nexstar rolled like a Super Sportster compared to this Solo Star trainer.

There are some days where I just enjoy taking a trainer out to the field instead of my King Kobra or Staudacher S-300. I enjoy relaxed flying, and it's fun to push a stable, predictable airplane. I also enjoy taking up folks for "intro flights" and training friends who can't make it to the club's training night. I can't do any of these things with a trainer that can't do a basic roll.

Tonight I decided to take the plunge and buy myself the nicest trainer that I could think of. I'm going ahead and taking advantage of the Great Planes sale on the Goldberg Protege .60 ARF, I ordered one from Omni Models for $119.99 delivered.

At a wingspan of 71.5", it's about as large of an airplane as will fit in my Hyundai Elantra. I have a new-in-the-box Thunder Tiger GP-61 2-stroke that should go perfect with it. I'm excited about the fact that the Protege .60 ARF comes covered with Ultracote, and that it uses dual aileron servos. I think this is going to be a nice large trainer that will be slow and gentle and easy for students to fly yet flexible enough to rev up and have fun with when I'm flying it alone.

I considered the Sig Kadet Senior ARF, but I didn't think it would be as aerobatic as the Protege. It was also $100 more expensive. I also seriously thought about trying the VMar Apache III ARF, but I decided to go with the Goldberg instead. One of these days I'm going to try a VMar ARF just so I can find out if they're worthy of all the abuse people seem to heap upon them. With the Protege on sale for almost the same cost as the Tower Trainer .60 MkII ARF, I figured I would go ahead and treat myself.

I'm excited about this purchase. I think the Protege will be a good trainer for me to fly for a long time to come. I also hope that I can hang onto it for a while and that I won't be in the trainer market again for a long time. This is my fourth season flying RC planes and I'm flying 3D planes, pattern planes, scale IMAC planes, and helicopters. I still can't imagine being "bored" with flying a trainer. I hope I always have a nice, big glow trainer in my hanger to share with others and to enjoy on days when I just don't feel like flying 100 mph with my hair on fire.

There is a picture of each of my previous and current trainers. I have fond memories of each of them. I'm happy to report that a fellow club member bought my old Easy Fly 40 at the auction last year and he flew it at our Memorial Day egg burn. I think I was more excited to see it flying than he was.

Jetdesign

My Feedback: (8)

There was a guy learning how to fly on a Nexstar at our field tonight, and it made me realize how much I miss having my Nexstar. I love flying my Dolphin, and I'm going to love flying my Decathlon, but I wish I had a bucket of money under my bed so I could buy another trainer, too. It would be nice to be able to 'tune out' and fly a lazy plane, and even to fly it beautifully with all that dihedral. Seems so relaxing. Watching the trainers come, err float in, for landings really just makes me wanna go 'ahh...'

Nice find on that Goldberg.

draftman1

hey guys, check out the SPADS!! they are cheap and you could have a bunch of planes.

mclina

After I soloed last summer and started flying my Four Star, I began to leave my trainer at home. Then, when I did bring it to the field, I kept having problems with dead sticks (H9 Alpha 40 with Evolution .45), so I ended up just hanging it up for many months. I kept flying my Four Star, my Bel Air 40, and I built a ton of SPADs of varying shapes and sizes.

I finally spent some time blowing the crud out of the fuel system on my Alpha, and got it back into the air a couple of weeks ago. It felt great to fly that plane again, and to let my kids train on it. They have each built their own SPAD trainers, but it's tough to fit everybody's plane in the car. I just put a bigger RX battery (1500mAh) in the Alpha so everybody can train on it without worrying about recharging the battery.

I don't plan on shelving the trainer again.

bigedmustafa

My Feedback: (2)

Yeah, trainers are great for nice, relaxing flying. They're also great on floats. One of the guys in our club has an old Protege 60 Kit with an O.S. Max .61 FP on it that he flies on floats and on wheels. He says it's one of his favorite planes.

I'm looking forward to building and flying mine, and I think that TT GP-61 will be a perfect match for it.

I checked the Omni Models website, and they already shipped the ARF today. Hopefully I'll have pictures of my own to post in a couple of weeks.

After MinnFlyer's review, I'm surprised more folks aren't flying the Protege after the big price drop:

http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine/a...article_id=901

Jetdesign

My Feedback: (8)

This thread's got me mildly excited to build a trainer for my first kit build this winter. Of course it would have to be bashed into a tail dragger...

And if you've been reading any of my threads you probably know I'll get a different idea in a few minutes and be on to something else. But hey, you never know! At least its something to waste my time dreaming about for a bit.

Jester241

Ok.....I think I might have to get my trusty trainer out tomarrow just to blow the dust off it!

basman

Try the pheonix "classic " wack a OS 46 ax sit back and have some fun. What the guy who trained me can do with that classic isn't worth doing.........for a beginner. Try going straight up, get some height then full left rudder then feed in some right aierolin...............

jetmech05

I keep a trainer in my hangar for the days I want to be lazy....besides you never know when someone will be so excited by your planes that you just want to give 'em a flight.....

Nathan King

Why not recover the Solo Star? Then you'd have something really unique - especially if it's covered anything like that Guillows kit.

Sorry, I just had to.

Thumprding

I would say it is time for a second plane then a trainer. Sounds to me like you can fly so it is time to move up to the "second" plane.

Nathan King

Oh, he can fly. He just wants a trainer to throw around on those lazy days.

bigedmustafa

My Feedback: (2)

I thought the Guillow's Lancer came out pretty good for a first attempt at stick-and-tissue building. I would have finished it but the wife complained so much about the smell of Aerogloss that it just wasn't worth finishing off the plane!

Besides, it flew great even with the tissue left "natural."

Nathan King

Yeah, it did come out good for a first attempt. I just had to give you somebody grief for something, don't take it personally.

bigedmustafa

My Feedback: (2)

I'm a big boy, I can take the insults and barbs. The Solo Star will be a good "knockaround" plane if I can ever get the ailerons to actually move more than a quarter of an inch. I'm not writing it off entirely, I just need to fix the problem, then recovering the wing sometime later will make sense.

bigedmustafa

My Feedback: (2)

Wow! I had no idea exactly how much prefabrication was done to this ARF! MinnFlyer's review talked about it without really emphasizing it completely. The control surfaces are all pre-hinged, and the control horns are attached. The engine mount is attached and pre-drilled for a .61 FX. The fuel tank is installed and plumed. The pushrods are all installed and there are EZ Link connectors on the throttle and nose gear rods and L connectors on the elevator and rudder push rods.

This might be one of the quickest building ARFs on the market. I feel dumb that I don't have my servos sitting here, or I could build this whole thing tonight and fly it tomorrow.

My covering isn't anywhere near as perfect as MinnFlyer's review plane. It looks like I have some ironing to do, but nothing that should take much work. If you're looking for an ARF that you can get in the air quickly, this has got to be the ticket!

Jetdesign

My Feedback: (8)

That's the almostest ready-to-fly plane in history!

bigedmustafa

My Feedback: (2)

The wife and I left for vacation right after the new Protege .60 ARF got dropped off on our doorstep. I've been pretty busy since we got back and I'm just now starting to put it together bit by bit.

I was very pleased to test the mounting lugs on the Thunder Tiger GP-61 2-stroke with the pre-drilled holes in the Protege's engine mount. They are a perfect fit and I am confident that the GP-61 will be an ideal match for the Protege .60 ARF.

I hope to finish up the plane and have it flying soon. This will be the first plane I've set up with my new Airtronics RDS8000 radio system. I'm quite excited as I believe this is going to turn out to be a very high quality trainer that will be as fun for sport flying as it is for teaching with.

craigteffe

My Feedback: (24)

guys if your looking for a good plane to train on and for it to be your next plane look at the Hanger 9 Ultra stick. I have trained a few on this plane and i would reccomend it to anyone starting out. It will serve your training needs and will also be a very nice second plane.

bigedmustafa

My Feedback: (2)

Well, after getting tied up at a wedding all weekend two weeks ago, then helping out at the Omaha Pattern Championship last weekend (grill master), I finally managed to get the Goldberg Protege .60 ARF buttoned up and out to the field.

I still had to check the CG, do a range check with the new RDS8000 radio system, and break in the Thunder Tiger GP-61 and get it running. One of the best pieces of advice I've heard is new airframe = old engine, new engine = old airframe. The idea is that you don't want to have to cope with too many variables or unfamiliar pieces of equipment all at the same time.

I took the Protege .60 out to the field tonight not knowing whether or not I'd even be able to maiden it. The first big challenge, the CG test, turned out to be a non-event. I put my 600Mah NiCd pack right behind the fuel tank per the manual, and with the TT GP-61 on the nose, the plane balanced perfectly per the manual.

The next challenge was the radio check. The Protege is the first plane I've set up with my Airtronics RDS8000 radio system. I've been flying a Futaba 7CAF radio for the last four seasons, and I'm still learning some of the funtionality of the Airtronics radio. I took my manual to the field with me and range checked the system very thoroughly. I did 35 paces from the left and the right of the airplane with no problem. I had some friends hold the plane on it's nose on the starting stand and then tested 35 paces from the top and bottom of the plane. With the bind light blinking steadily to indicate I was in range test mode, the radio system never skipped a beat.

Ironically it was the engine break-in, the task I was least concerned about, that turned out to be the most challenging. The TT GP-61 was really tight and, while I had trickle charged the transmitter and receiver batteries for almost 20 hours, I hadn't charged up my field box battery for my starter. The GP-61 just didn't want to fire up at first. I kept spinning it and spinning it trying to get it to fire, but with the very tight pinch and the weak starter battery, the engine seemed to hydrolock quickly.

One of my fellow Omahawks took pity on me and brought over his 20 Amp motor cycle battery and high torque starter. I removed the glow plug and carburetor line to blow out the excess fuel, then the extra cranking power did the trick. We got the engine running and adjusted the high end needle to 1/4 turn rich of peek, and the GP-61 gulped down its first tank full of Magnum 10% sport fuel like a hungry calf.

After the first tankful of fuel, the GP-61 was much, much easier to start. It also idled down and transitioned surprisingly reliably. I couldn't drop down to full idle on the throttle stick, but I believed the plane was actually flyable at that point. I let the engine cool down for about ten minutes after the intial tank of gas. Once the GP-61 rested for a while, I topped it up and decided to take the plane up for a flight. Normally I'd do more tuning work before maidening a sport plane or pattern plane, but I was confident that a dead stick landing would be little drama for the Protege .60 ARF.

The initial flight started out a little hairy. I needed several clicks of left aileron and down elevator to get the plane even remotely trimmed out. The GP-61 after one tank of fuel on the ground was running reliably, but was far from turning the prop at the ideal speed. Even light on power, however, I had the airframe trimmed out decently and was flying loops and rolls and doing inverted circuits after a few minutes.

The roll rate is wonderful; I didn't reduce the throws on the ailerons and the big 6' wing rolls surprisingly well. The elevator authority is also very good. I wanted a nice big trainer that would be easy to fly but would be sporty enough to be fun to fly when I wasn't buddy boxing students. This Protege .60 ARF will fit the bill nicely! The red, white, and blue trim scheme displays nicely at altitude. It's nice to have a trainer that has a high visibility trim scheme on the bottom and the red and blue bars were very easy to see from the ground.

I flew the plane at altitude until it ran out of fuel. The initially out-of-trim elevator turned out to be a good test for the radio system during the first flight as the plane got much higher and further out from me than I'd intended it. The RDS8000 was rock solid at all angles and orientations with the quick response time of the radio system being readily apparent as well. The gentle glide path and smooth handling of the Protege provided welcome confidence as I glided the trainer in for it's initial landing after the engine ran out of go juice.

I enjoyed the initial flight and it was a beautiful evening, so I decided to fill up the Protege's fuel tank and go up for another flight. The GP-61 was running smoothly and reliably and the Airtronics radio system was crisp and responsive. I continued to enjoy more loops and rolls, I also decided to try a Cuban 8 just for fun. The big trainer rolled through the Cuban 8 so smoothly that I wished I'd finished it a week or two ago. I could have flown the Sportsman schedule with it in last week's pattern contest. My attempts at a wing-over turn left a lot to be desired, however, so maybe I should be glad I waited to maiden the plane.

I flew the Protege around again until the GP-61 drank the fuel tank dry once more. The big trainer glided down smoothly and gracefully once more, and with about half a dozen of my flying buddies looking on, I performed a nearly flawless landing. It looked like I'd been flying the Protege all summer. I proclaimed that the landing was all due to my expert piloting skills, but the guys knew better!

I will continue to work on fine tuning the control trims and the throttle linkage. I think the GP-61 will need several more tanks of fuel through it before it really begins to settle in, as well. Overall I'd have to say that the Protege is still a work in progress, but I'm really happy with how the plane is turning out. With the proper trim and tuning, this is going to be a terrific all-purpose flyer.

F4U Corsair

My Feedback: (22)

If they would only get some in stock! Seems like H9 is backordered on a lot of their airplanes at the moment.

craigteffe

My Feedback: (24)

Take a look at your local hobby shop they usually keep them in stock.

bigedmustafa

My Feedback: (2)

I took the Protege 60 back out to the field yesterday along with both of my RDS8000 transmitters and my Airtronics buddy box chord. I was hoping my friend Mike would make it out to the club so we could do a couple of training flights together on the new plane. I had tested the buddy box features at home a bit, but hadn't yet put them to the test out at the field.

Well Mike couldn't make it out, but it turned out to be a very good thing that I brought out the second radio and cable. Jim and Mary, a couple with an interest in checking out the hobby, stopped by the field to watch a few of us fly yesterday. I got to chatting with them between flights about our club, our Thursday night training program, and getting started in the hobby.

Jim and Mary seemed genuinely interested and began talking about coming out Thursday night and then again visiting our field for our big Labor Day Air Show next week. Realizing that I had a full buddy box setup available for the Protege 60, I suggested there was no time like the present. I offered to take Jim up right then and there on an intro flight and let him try my new plane out on the spot.

While I was getting the two transmitters connected up and double checking the controls, Adam, one of our newer club members, overheard our conversation and asked if I was going to be buddy boxing my Protege .60. I replied that I was, and Adam asked if I could give his girlfriend JoAnn and his friend Jeff each an intro flight. They'd both been interested in giving flying a shot but hadn't been able to come out on Thursday evenings.

Jim and I went up for the first flight and I talked to him a little bit about the controls and using gentle stick movements to control the plane before giving him control of my new Protege. When I first gave control over to Jim, the plane ballooned up rather noticably. I realized we'd need some help adjusting the trim on the RDS8000 I was using for the buddy box. My buddy Roland helped trim out the second RDS8000 and we got things smoothed out, then handed the second box back to Jim.

He took the lessons to heart apparently, because he did an excellent job right off the bat of making smooth movements and not overcontrolling the plane too much. We offered his wife Mary a turn on the sticks, but she didn't have her glasses with her. She sounded genuinely interested in giving it a try on Thursday night, however, and I wouldn't be too surprised if she shows up later this week ready to take her turn at the sticks.

After a short break, I refueled the Protege .60 and we took off again, this time with Jeff and JoAnn each waiting for their turn while Jim, Mary, and Adam all watched on. The engine seemed to suddenly be down on power, so I brought it back in and declared I'd need to adjust the needle a bit. This was only the sixth flight on the new Thunder Tiger GP-61 engine, and it is still breaking in. I had to lean out the high speed needle just a touch after our previous flight, but I was rewarded once again with smooth and reliable power once the GP-61 was happy.

We took back off and had some terrific flying. Jeff and JoAnn both did very well for their first time up just as Jim had. The both got in a few smooth turns and showed some real ability. They also had their share of overcorrections and control mistakes like any first time flyer would, but they each got about 6 or 7 minutes of flying time and seemed to have a lot of fun.

The Thunder Tiger GP-61 is getting a little stronger and smoother which each flight as it continues to break in. The RDS8000 radio system is performing wonderfully, providing smooth, fast, solid control. Using it as a training system has proven to be quite easy, as well. The big Protege .60 ARF flies smoothly, lands easily, and displays nicely in the air. The big 72" wingspan and high visibility covering scheme will really help students with orientation.

As afternoon faded into early evening, my gang of surprise students thanked me and headed out to go do other things. My friend Fred showed up and we got to chatting for a bit. I relaxed for a while and watched Fred fly his Thunder Tiger Imagine 50 while Roland flew his Sig Hog Bipe. Ralph Brown showed up and got three flights in with his Super Buccaneer. As the sun began slowly dropping toward the western horizon, everybody else packed up and headed for home. Fred and I were the last two pilots of the evening.

I fueled up the Protege 60 while Fred was tearing up the skies with a home made flying wing of his that is so fast it takes your breath away to watch it. Fred landed as I started up the Protege and walked to the flight line. As the big bird accelerated smoothly up the runway and lifted off into the sky, Fred came walking up to watch the fun.

I put the Protege through a full course of standard aerobatics, flying loops, rolls, Immelmanns, Split "S", and wing overs. The Protege was flying inverted more easily than many of my old sport planes with just a touch of down elevator required to hold it level. My Cuban 8s were getting better as the GP-61 increased in power, but my wing over turns still weren't very good. "You're not getting verticle before the turn," Fred offered, "you need to be straight up and down before you kick in the rudder."

"Here hot shot, why don't you show me?" I replied and handed Fred the RDS8000. Fred proceeded to show me what a decent wing over turn is supposed to look like and then flew the Protege across the horizon in a nice, smooth knife edge. Fred was using the elevator to remove the coupling, but he did it so smoothly you'd think he was flying a pattern ship instead of the Protege. He pulled out of the knife edge and rolled the plane through a double barrel roll.

"Ooh, I can see why you like this thing. The aileron roll rate is awesome! Do you want to fly this thing some more?" Fred's question was silly. "Yeah," I stuck out my hand, "pass it on over."

I finished up the flight continuing to do more loops, inverted circuits, and Cuban 8s. I even attempted another couple of wing over turns, but they didn't look much better than my original attempts. Finally the GP-61 started to surge and then quit. I took the plane around on its downwind leg and began my approach, oblivious to the fact that the propeller had quit turning.

The big trainer came gliding right around and turned smoothly as I lined up my final approach. It floated down steadily and responded perfectly with a slight flare as I set the main gear down on the runway right in front of where Fred and I were standing on the flight line. Fred complimented my landing and I had to laugh. I confessed that, after six or seven flights, I still hadn't landed the big bird under power. It glides in so smoothly and predictably that I had been flying it out of fuel every time before bringing it in to land.

Fred agreed that it was the perfect engine for the perfect trainer, and that the RDS8000 was a pleasure to fly with. Fred flies with a Polk Tracker II transmitter, and he noticed the light weight and the comfortable ergonomics of the Airtronics radio right away.

I wanted a nice big trainer that would be great for instructing with, but that would still be fun to fly when I was out on my own as well. The Protege .60 ARF is shaping up to be that plane in every way I could hope for. The TT GP-61 engine is getting better and better with every flight, also. The more I fly this setup, the happier I am with it.