ORIGINAL: jester_s1
You've already answered your question: it's not a beginner's plane. Plenty can be done with a trainer, especially one of the more aerobatic ones like the Hobbico Avistar (very popular at my club).
Boy is it NOT a trainer...
No way should a twist every be put in a beginner's hands... A Twist will get away from you REALLY fast....
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That said the Alpha 40 engine is in no way "anemic" or underpowered.
The Alpha 40 comes with an Evolution .455 PTS engine, but with a VERY low pitch prop PURPOSELY...
The prop with the PTS comes with however is so low pitch that the engine will SEEM anemic... however if you swap it out for say an 11x6 APC, the engine comes alive.
The PTS engine produces just about as much power as an OS AX 46 when using the same prop as the AX... it is almost difficult to tell the two apart...
That means the beginner can use the PTS prop to get started, letting the plane be more mild manner as they learn, then later switch to the 11x6 to really change things up.
BTW: I took my PTS engine out of my Alpha ( after my daughter crashed it ) and threw it into a Twist 40...
The plane goes straight up at 50% throttle, using a 13x4w prop and hovers at less than half throttle.
I've also placed the PTS engines into other .40-.50 planes with great performance.