This is not a testimonial for a particular plane, but over the past couple of years several new fliers at our club have been trained from day 1 on a venerable World Models T-34 with great results. It began with a demo 'feel' in flight for one prospective flier and she did so well that the idea of using the T-34 as a trainer caught on. By now 5 or 6 new fliers have lived through the plane - and it has lived through multiple crashes. to fly on. The plane has sturdy landing gear and an easily repaired structure and covering that keeps looking good with the inevitable hangar rash. It has flown with .46 2-stroke and a .56 4-stroke as a basic trainer and advanced trainer and is still going strong. All training was done with a buddy cord until solo time and not 'self taught'

At lower rates and moderate speeds it handles the over controlling of a low time flier learning turns without teaching the bad habits that self-righting trainers can encourage. Take offs are straight and true and landings are so sure that it almost lands itself cutting down the time it took to teach those parts. The average trainer's tendency to float and sensitivity to wind changes are reduced on the T-34. On top of that, it looks much nicer than the look-alike trainers and the students like showing it off to their friends. (That alone got us one new member).

I'm sure this is not the only non traditional trainer suitable for this and I know one newbie who was taught on a SIG Somethin' Extra at very low rates. We still have the traditional trainer types around, but I just wanted to share this experience. Perhaps you might have had a similar experience with flight training in non-traditional models?


quint