i must say that that cor star 60 is a nice looking plane and i am sorry to hear about the four star i too just lost mine augered it in after losing the elevator but i hasnt shaken my confidance in the least i just sloshed throught the swamp and fought the blackberries to retrieve the wreckage and yes it was a total lose. but what must be learned in order to keep your confidance is to find out what happened and why it happened it really is pretty simple for example if your doing inverted passes at 10 ft and pull up hard yes you crashed but you need to learn from that and not do it again if it was a failure, like mine then learn what failed and try to do better in thhat dept in my case i learned that i cant solder for s**t but has it stopped me no in fact i am going to use the only two parts left to build a new plane those would be the hor. and vert stabs they will fly again.

if flying a spad helps you to over look the crash and learn what you need to from it then more power to you but just understand that it isnt the material that made all these examples better pilots but instead it was the correct mindset again if a cheap plastic plane sets your mind at ease then great just remember that it is all in your mind all along.

and the reason i prefer more traditional materials is for the craftsmanship involved (aside from soldering skills) but i enjoy the woodworking i enjoy the glassing i enjoy the sanding the shaping the modeling the hobby. spads well im not against them just havnt gotten there yet.

and finally it needs to be pointed out that us balsa ppl arent really the ones that post these topics on the begginers forum the last two were from a spadder and were quite beligerent in nature some of the spad folks here have been as well this is a hobby here it is for fun spads dont fly any better or worse than balsa they can be cheaper but dont forget that the plan is the cheap part no matter what you build out of you need a radio and engine if you buy new and spend average to low end its still twoo hundred bucks give or take and yes i have seen a Rx and enginge explode on impact it can and does happen

hmm my two cents turned in to 1.98