Well, I just thought I'd give you all a final follow up to the beginner dad and the flying of the plane.

We got the Hobbico Superstar 40 RTF electric and put it together in about an hour. Box said 20 minutes so that's about right for me since I've never done this before.

After fully charging the battery neither my son nor I could wait any longer to see it run. So, we taxied it around on our blacktop driveway just getting the feel of it. We knew better than to fly it so we just went through a battery moving it around on the ground.

My Father in law contacted a buddy who had been flying planes for fifteen years for our instructor flight. As it would turn out Mike (father in law's buddy) flies mostly electric so that was even better.

We went to a farm field and flew two of Mike's many electric planes (one was a foam Unicorn and the other something that looked like a bat and had the wings as flimsy). I was surprised to see Mike launch both of his planes by hand and after a full two seconds or so THEN he kicked on the engine. Long story short, Mike was a very good pilot. Very safe, lots of tips we couldn't have gotten in ten books, and really loves this hobby.

My boy is Chris. Mike let Chris work the controls of Mike's two electric planes but always stayed right there in case it got ugly. And it did a few times. I tried it too and it was the same for me. Even though we had the plane a thousand feet up it was easy to see how quickly it could come spiralling down without someone who has a clue on the stick. Chris really got the hang of it pretty quickly though, however, he still isn't ready to do any solos yet. And I wouldn't expect him to either.

Finally, it was time to fly Chris's Superstar plane. Mike was nervous since he admittedly would feel bad if he crashed it. Crash his own planes he's done many times. Crash someone else's? Probably not. I thought for sure, since the Superstar has landing gear, that we'd take it off from the ground and land it on the ground. Mike had a better idea.

We walked into a hey field that was very tall. The hey was probably 3-4 feet tall. We walked 50 yards to an area where the deer had bedded down it appeared and Mike gave me the plan. Hold Chris's plane up and after he put the throttle to full I'd throw the plane. Not up, not down, straight out. Well, now I'm nervous. Can you even launch a plane like this by throwing it? Sure, Mike threw his own planes to get them started but they were different and were made to launch that way.

After getting instruction on what we were going to do Mike fired it up wide open and I was surprised that the dang plane literally wanted to jump out of my hand. I took two steps and tossed it forward as straight as I could. Mike quickly got control of the plane and started climbing. Immediately Mike started saying "Oh, this is nice. This really controls nice." He climbed it to 1000 or so feet (my guess based on what I had seen earlier) and got the feel for it. Then he turned it over to Chris (with Mike's hands still touching the transmitter but off the controls). From time to time he'd have to take it back from Chris because it got ugly. As we had seen with Mike's planes Mike was able to fly Chris's plane with no power and just gliding.

At some point the power was dead to the motor and Mike brought it back down gliding. In the tall hey field the landing was less than perfect but it didn't matter. That's why we were in the tall hey field.

Everyone, especially Mike, let out a collective relief "Whew!" and after charging the battery again and doing some more flying with Mike's planes we did a repeat for Chris's plane. Things went just as smoothly and Chris had a ball. I did too watching Chris and learning.

Anyway, this is way long but just wanted to say thank you for the help. We got a good plane. The plane is still in one piece. And we learned a lot just in this one instructor meeting.

Now I have a hankering for a foam plane. Oh, and a better charger too - one that tells you when it's done charging and also takes the battery to zero before starting the charge. Yah, I know. I don't know all the terms yet. I don't speak your language just yet. But I can see how this is something you could really get in to and something you could do with your child even when your child is the age I am today and I'm old and gray.

Thanks again guys. Oh, it's time for a flight simulator too so we can practice more this Winter. :-)

David