You may not like the trainers, but their built that way for a reason - to give you a nice stable platform that gives you time to learn how to react to the plane. This past weekend, I met a new flier. He got my name from our local hobby shop which is providing a brochure to people buying airplanes. He said it was much more of a hassle than he'd expected. When I got to his house (a 150 acre farm), he had the plane out on the back of his truck. As I started looking things over, he began telling me that his buddy had been so excited about this plane (a Nextstar 46 Trainer) that they put it together immediately and tried to fly it. Apparently they didn't bother reading most of the instruction manual that came with it. The elevator could barely be brought down to level with the stabilizer with full trim, the ailerons were not even and equal. As I continued to look it over, I saw the throttle stop screw was bent (obviously had nosed into the dirt). It was after this attempt they called me.

Now I'm not knocking him. He's a nice guy, and is very eager to learn. Like all new flyers the prospect of getting the plane out of the box and taking off seems so simple. Good flyers make it look easy. And it will be - eventually.

After his first lesson last Saturday, he was convinced that having an instructor was the right way to go. He'd spent several hours on the simulator, and was doing OK maintaining altitude and heading, but he was making most of the first time flyer mistakes - over controlling, holding ailerons, waiting for the plane to self correct out of the turn (a mistake that's reinforced by the AFS system). Next time out, we'll start working our way down to shoot some approaches. I expect in a few more weeks, he'll be ready to fly solo. But then we'll take off the speed brakes and wing droops, and see how it goes from there!

Recommended trainers? They're all pretty good. I've seen the best results with the Hanger 9 Alpha trainer. I flew a new Tower Hobbies trainer on Saturday, and it flew very nicely. The Nexstar is also good, but I recommend getting rid of the AFS. The owner of the Tower Hobbies trainer said he liked it better than his Nexstar - he didn't have to fight it as much. I think the Tower Hobbies trainer is lighter and a little more responsive. Our club just purchased a new Megatech Nitro 46 trainer, which I have yet to fly, but came highly recommended by other club members.

There have been several good reviews on here of the PTS P-51. I've never tried it.

Good Luck!
Brad