MTCarey --

The Aurora as mentioned above was an excellent pattern ship for the pre-fourstroke days. I flew them for several years -- actually one year too long. The last year there were two of nine flyers in Advanced flying two stokes (my Aurora and an Eclipse -- not the current one). I finished 8th and he finished 9th -- neither one of us was flying that badly but our patterns were rushed because of the speed of the plane and the distance needed to fly at that speed - they were not good trackers flying slowly -- it just didn't present well compared to the other bigger, slower planes; and "it didn't look or sound like the others" so it must not have been as good.... The planes mentioned above would be good starting points, they don't need to zoom to fly well (even though they can if the throttle is left wide open...) and they will give you a little more comfortable experience getting started with pattern and staying in the box. Sure had fun with mine, though...

Good Luck!
Tom