First off, I'd like to say hi!

I recently purchased an Avistar ARF (monokote) with the intent of getting into RC airplanes. I guess you can say I'm now addicted, but then again, being around aviation my entire life doesn’t help much.. Anyhow, I have now completed about 5 flights (with an instructor on the buddy box system) with the Avistar and absolutely love it! I couldn't possibly ask for more in a trainer. The Avistar has the ability to do the basics and then some. I would recommend this to anyone out there.

After reading a few posts on here, I ended up mounting the battery pack aft of the servo housing, and putting 2 weights on the empennage. This leveled the airplane out pretty well and is very nice and is very stable in-flight. I also elected to use an OS .46 AX engine for the Avistar and have -0- complaints so far, as it has more than enough power to do what I need, etc.

Also, I can’t stress enough how much the Realflight G3 simulator has helped me in learning the controls and control inputs when flying towards my position, etc. I highly recommend this to anyone who's learning how to fly. It's also a great cure for boredom on those stormy nights here in Texas.

Oh, and out of boredom, I made a little video of tonight’s flights (all mixed up). and included an "oh ****" moment that I was able to correct in the nic of time before wrecking. :-) My instructor said I did a great job of recovering.. The video is about 11 megs in size, so dial up users beware.

*right click, save as*
http://www.myflying.us/rcvideos/flight4_5.wmv

Hope you all enjoy the video and don't laugh toooo much.. :-)

- Josh