G'day Hugger. I agree. I was pushed into teaching when my club's resident instructor moved on. A new bloke turned up and he needed some help. I was dropped in it. It taught me a great deal and I am still learning. I am currently trying to push another relatively recent pilot into doing some teaching. If he does, I will mentor him in his teaching.

I test fly all my own planes. I started doing it when some experts crashed a couple of mine. I figured it they were going to crash, I might as well be the one to crash them. I have killed two models on their first flights - both mine. One was an ARF with severely warped ailerons and elevator. I tried to trim it but I got it wrong. It wanted to roll violently AND dive at the same time. The second was probably seriously tail heavy. It was a bi-plane Tiger Moth and came with very poor instructions. I suspect I had the top wing in the wrong place and the CG wrong as well. They were both some years ago. Lately I have been much better at getting the initial trim close to correct. Teaching keeps you learning.

Mike in Oz