I've finally finished my trainer, an old Great Planes Trainer 60. It's been sitting around half finished since 1991.

This will be my third attempt at this hobby, but will only be my first "serious" attempt. My first time I was in the Air Force stationed in England. I got a plane and built it and finished it really nice (first picture), but there was no one around that flew so I attempted to go it alone. BIG mistake! First off, I put the elevator and rudder on the right stick and the throttle and ailerons on the left. PLUS I had set up the ailerons reversed.....and didn't relize it until I took off and the plane started turning to the right. I pushed the stick all the way left to try and correct it but just made it turn harder to the right...right into the ground. Even though the plane looked great, thinking back now I don't think it was built very straight.

My second attempt I was going to use an instructor, but the plane I built, a Goldberg Eagle, was flown into a tree and destroyed BY the instructor. At that point I gave up. A couple of years later my dad went all out and bought a Great Planes Trainer 60, and Airtronics 4 channel radio, electric starter, etc etc etc. He got halfway through the build and lost interest. So he gave it all to me and I just stored it until now.

The Trainer 60 says to use anythign from a .40 to a .60, so since I had the .40 sitting around that's what I put in it. I don't know if it's due to the smaller, lighter engine, but I had to put 14oz of weight under the fuel tank to balance it properly. Which is another thing I knew nothing about doing with my first plane :-) I've got all the servos set up right this time so at least it will "try" to fly right lol. Something that I learned from other pilots in the past but have never seen mentioned in this forum is the proper setup of the throttle servo. I was told to set up the throttle so that when the trim switch is all the way up, and the throttle lever is all the way down, the engine is at idle. that way you don't accidentally kill the engine in flight. And to kill the engine you just slide the trim switch all the way down. Is this the correct setup that everyone uses?

So now I have finally finished it (second picture), I've found a club, and as soon as I receive my AMA membership I'll start flying. Looking forward to just seeing one of the instructors take it up for the first time to trim it out just to see it fly successfully.