747,
I just answered your last post but in another thread about the Rascal. I didn't know that you were considering it as a trainer. I wouldn't recommend it as your first "larger" trainer. The rascal is easy to fly, but it is not designed as a primary trainer. It has a semi-symmetrical airfoil, a thin wing, hardly any dihedral, and it's a tail dragger. All these things add up to a more difficult learning experience. I think the tail dragger part is going to be the most difficult to master at first. Taking off with one for the first time might be a series of frustrating ground loops, until you get the hang of coping with P-factor and other things that creep up at take off with a tail dragger. The wing design, thin, low dihedral, eliptical also means it is not a floater, and will need some higher speeds at landing. Where if you had a tricycle-geared, big dihedral flat-bottomed wing trainer, most of these things you would not have to deal with. My .40 size Rascal was my second plane, but not until I had mastered the first trainer, and I also fly many hours on a sim at home. Good luck, and if you do get a Rascal anyway, I like the red one better!

Jesse