RE: Bates B-26 Marauder
Mark:
A little history on the Martin B-26. It is the airplane that Peyton Magruder is remembered for, the Marauder is his most well known design.
The first production models had a wing so small that the plane was nicknamed the "Baltimore Wh*re" as it had "No visible means of support." There was a slight increase of wing area in the later production, but it still had an extremely high wing loading.
In WW2 the airplane distinguished itself by having the lowest combat loss rate percentage of any type flown by the Allies. However, all the B-26 pilots who made it to combat were the survivors of an unforgiving Darwinian selection process, the Marauder also had just about the highest training loss rate of any type flown by the Allies.
The pilots who mastered the plane loved it, and it seemed to love them back. The ones who just weren't good enough were sometimes washed out, but often killed themselves too. Sadly, they killed other people at the same time.
All this is to say the B-26 can be a nasty plane, but once mastered it's sweet. As a guess you have a 50% probability of getting comfortable with it, the other 50% of course, says you'll destroy the plane learning to fly it.
I've never flown the Martin, but I do have some time in the Douglas A-26 you mentioned as a transition trainer, it's a nice airplane. But not as a first twin.
Don't be ashamed to fly a smaller twin, if anyone looks down their nose at you just ask them where their twin is. And that leads me to say the Northeast Aerodynamics [link=http://www.ne-aero.com/twinair45.html]Twin-Air 45[/link] is just about the best first twin available.
Start with a smaller glow twin? Most definitely. Several reasons, among them is expense. The T-A 45 with a pair of new Magnum XLS 46 engines, and all the radio gear, ready to fly will cost less than the VQ A-26 kit alone. It is also a forgiving plane, very few military airplanes are, either full size or scale.
In the case of a twin trainer smaller is better, it will not only react to a failure faster than a larger plane, it will respond more quickly to your corrective inputs as well. With the lighter wing loading, lower altitude and speed if it does get away from you there is less probability of total destruction. There's that cost factor rearing its head again.
Think I've run on long enough here. Just get the Twin-Air and stop asking questions.
Haw.
Bill.