Guys,

Thanks for your interest and good advice. I wanted to clear up some of the questions that some of you have had regarding our training arrangement. Every time that I was flying with the instructor, I was on a buddy box. The instructor held the master radio and I held the slave.

You are quite correct that my instructor should have kept me in a much safer learning environment. He probably should have not allowed me to attempt maneuvers such as I was, or at least he should have made sure that I was 3 mistakes high. However, as a full scale pilot, I am disappointed that I did not place those limitations upon myself. I know better. Altitude IS your friend and can help you avoid costly events such as we had that day. I will choose to learn from this whole experience and walk away from it wiser.

As a follow up, we have our LT-40 assembled (still using our Irvine .53 which runs excellently), and it has two flights on it now. After 4 different approaches (man, does this thing FLOAT!) I finally got a nice landing out of it this evening.[sm=thumbup.gif]

Eva likes it better (as a trainer) than the Baron (she finally told me she was a bit afraid of the Baron). It's larger, easier to see and much more forgiving. It also is much less slick aerodynamically so it doesn't get away as quickly.

We're still having fun, which is most important. I'm just looking ahead to solo time!

Thanks again for your kind words and good advice. We'll keep you posted on our progress.