One more reason for a tail wheel is that if you are learning to fly remember take offs are optional but landings are mandatory. learning to land with a nose wheel can be much more painfull than with a tail wheel. Rough landings can bend your nose gear or damage the rudder servo but one really big pain in the butt problem is boken firewalls. Since the nose gear is generally attached on the firewall it can damage it and that fix can be time consuming. I had 2 avistars and converted both. The first after 1/2 dozen flights and the 2nd right away. Also minimal maintainence compared to nose gear. good luck, feep