Club Trainer . Does your club have one?
10-22-2013, 05:17 AM
#2
My club has 4 trainers. Three are glow. One is electric.
We use them as introductory aircraft. You can come out for a few nights of training, to check your interest level. If interested, you must buy your own trainer to complete your flight instruction.
We use them as introductory aircraft. You can come out for a few nights of training, to check your interest level. If interested, you must buy your own trainer to complete your flight instruction.
10-22-2013, 08:29 AM
#3
Our club has two LT-40's that we use a club trainers. We don't do primary training with them. We use them for demo flights for people that are interested in getting into the hobby. We may let a student start training on one if they just don't have their own trainer quite ready yet, but we don't take them all the way through the process on them. I have one of the club trainers that I keep in my trailer. I use Eneloop batteries in the plane and a Li-po in the transmitter, I do this so that they are always charged and ready to go. Many times people will stop by the club on a flying day, and having the trainer charged and ready I can pull it out and have them doing a demo flight in just a few minutes. It works great.
Hope this helps
Ken
Hope this helps
Ken
10-22-2013, 12:42 PM
#4
We have an old PT-40, with a 40 FP and an older 72 mhz radio.that was donated to the club from a member that passed away. We cleaned it up, recovered it and use it mostly for introductory flying and demonstrations. Nothing fancy but it gets the job done.
Last edited by bolar; 10-22-2013 at 12:49 PM.
10-23-2013, 06:32 AM
#5
Our Club has recently adopted the same policy,, after years of having an open trainer night and members using their personal aircraft generously, we found many people would just come fly the club member's aircraft with no real intention of ever buying a plane for themselves or joining the club.
10-23-2013, 07:39 PM
#6
I believe successfully operating a club owned trainer for intro flights requires some sort of on site storage and a commitment for one or more members to provide maintenance, repair and charging duties.
Our club has had some club owned airplanes in the past that were donated for the purpose and the need to provide transportation in addition to the above just did not work and the result was always the same no one not even remembering who had the trainer and they soon disappeared. Result was they were never avalible or even remotely ready and prepared.
What has worked far better is two other instructors and I keep and maintain our own ships just for the purpose. In this way our airplanes are perfectly setup and we all use Cordless buddy Cord systems Which is arguably a useful tool and one I would never be without agine. Doing this I will make my own decisions on how far I care to go using my equipment before the student gets their own.
Some I will carry through Solo and some may only just get a flight or two.
John
Our club has had some club owned airplanes in the past that were donated for the purpose and the need to provide transportation in addition to the above just did not work and the result was always the same no one not even remembering who had the trainer and they soon disappeared. Result was they were never avalible or even remotely ready and prepared.
What has worked far better is two other instructors and I keep and maintain our own ships just for the purpose. In this way our airplanes are perfectly setup and we all use Cordless buddy Cord systems Which is arguably a useful tool and one I would never be without agine. Doing this I will make my own decisions on how far I care to go using my equipment before the student gets their own.
Some I will carry through Solo and some may only just get a flight or two.
John
10-24-2013, 06:37 AM
#8
We have 2 Hanger 9 Alpha trainers with Spectrum DX5 radios. We hold 3 learn to fly days a season and do not allow the student to take off or land. After the initial flight you must purchase your own equipment if you wish to continue, and join the AMA and the club,and continue training with a club instructor until you can take off and land succesfully on your own 3 times without help from the instructor to be considered ready to solo. We get 1-2 new pilots a year maybe. We have the planes all setup in our shed on a timer to charge the batteries 2 hrs a day so they are always ready and I take the batteries home during the winter to maintain them. Our local HS offers a package deal to new pilots for the same set up, so it makes it easy for the student to transition.
10-24-2013, 02:54 PM
#10
You guys have some great info. our club has been around for a long time and I don't remember ever having a trainer available for intro flight training.we approved some money to get one for flight introduction but didn't know how or who would use it. reading how others have handled it will make it easy for us to make a flight program that works. Thanks for the great ideas.
Karl
Karl
