mike109

G'day

I was a late comer to RC. I did not start out until I was about 40 in 1989. My first trainer was picked for me by my instructor. He wanted me to get a Thunder Tiger Eagle 40 but they weren't available so he got me a Great Planes Trainer 40. It was a disaster.

Firstly it was quite a complicated model to build and I was a beginner (though I had flown control line earlier). I managed to build quite a nice warp into the wing.

Secondly it was quite fast with its Super Tigre 40

But mostly because GP had put a very soft piece of balsa in the kit for the elevators. With my CL experience I wondered at the strength of the balsa when I was putting the elevator horn in and it turned out that I was right. My teacher liked to fly fast and furious models and he ripped the elevator horn out when he tried a Split S when lining up to land. The plane was a total write off.

My second trainer was actually built for my son who was about 12 at the time. It was also a GP kit but this time it was a PT 40 which was a far better trainer though my teacher hated it and because of this he lost interest in me and I ended up having to teach myself to land. To do this I built a Dynaflyte Butterfly. I still have one. Shoftly afterwards, and after several planes that were either disasters or had very short lives, I discovered the SIG Kadet Senior.

I have had many planes since but I keep coming back to the Senior. I have just built another two of them. One has a Saito 90R3 radial in it and the one I am just finishing now (and which will be called Patches because it has been built from a spare wing kit and a spare fuse kit and any covering I can find) will have a Saito 72. I have built it with ailerons similar to the ARF version and have reduced the dihedral as well.

So do I still have my original trainer? No, it died years ago but I still have several of the best trainer I have ever had.

Photo is of the Zeraux (faux Zero) with its radial engine.

Mike in Oz