Ok.. I looked that over. Agreed, it's not sexy, but it certainly fits the bill for a second plane or a plane that you might wish to get back into the hobby with.

Time for a short story. Many of us trained on... well, trainers. We solo'ed, and progressed to the next step. In my case, it was the Tiger 60, although I had two other planes in my "hanger" that I really wanted to fly. The Tiger 60 became my real second plane, though, and I flew the wings off of that thing. It got banged around, but still flew just fine. It is still around, someone talked me into selling it to him and, as far as I know, it still flys.

Meanwhile, back to the trainer and my "short story". Even now, with two 90 size pattern planes, and other extremely capable planes, I go back to my trainer from time to time for a nice relaxing flight, but an eye opener as to how we forget the basics, and are forced to "re-learn" some of the flight characteristics those trainers taught us. Many of us here on RCU do that exact same thing. End of story.

My point is that no matter what you choose, getting back to basics is not only fun, but can be a great refresher for the basics that went on the back burner after flying more capable planes, those that "fly on rails" pretty much hands off, although any well trimmed plane, including a trainer, should do just that.

So, go with what you think is right for you. If you want a recommendation, well, that Phoenix looks pretty nice to me for a second plane.. large wing so a good wing loading characteristic, and, it should do anything you want it to do, short of 3D.. power it correctly and it will do that too, in the hands of someone that does that.. I don't, so I'm talking out of turn, but someone once said that given a big enough engine, and a capable pilot, a door can be made to fly...

Good luck.

CGr.