ORIGINAL: CGRetired

TPL33: The Hobbico 60 trainer is an outstanding choice. What's nice about is the size. For trainers, the larger the better (within limits of course). They give you better visibility to what's happening when you apply movement to the control sticks, as well as slower and more sedate reactions to the stick movement. You do not need an aerobatic fast plane as a trainer, that's for sure.

I am not a big fan of the PTS. I am old school - where a trainer is a trainer, and a war bird is a war bird. The mix never worked for me... but that's my opinion.

Many, if not most of us "old timers" still fly our trainers. Yeah, you might learn then put it aside for a faster more maneuverable aircraft, but many of seem to drift back to the basics once in a while to re-learn how to fly!! That may sound odd, but when you get to the more capable planes, the ones that "fly like they are on rails", those are nice, but you tend to get very comfortable with that and lose some of the stick-and-rudder action you learned with the trainers. Going back once in a while is great because you get the nice slow, floating action of a trainer that can be relaxing as well as putting us back to the basics of flying RC.

Anyway, once again, that's my opinion that is based on my personal experiences.

Good luck!! Enjoy RC!!!

CGr.