I see things in a little different way....The Morris profiles are definitely the best for 3D, but they are expensive for a couple sheets of wood and a few sticks.

The Fun 51 is CHEAP! The wood is nice and the instructions and plans are also good. All the hardware needed is there. $45 is great price. Almost 1/3 as much as a Morris kit...The airplane is very light too. My Extra Special is 4 lb's with a Pro .46. The Extra Special is the exact same as the Fun 51 except for the fuselage shape. I got my Extra Special (I call it the POS) when they went down to $30 because they quit producing them. I wish I would have gotten about 5 of them!

They are not the best at 3D, that's definitely true. They will do it though and they will do it better than a lot of airplanes will.

If they are setup right, the Fun 51 will hover and torque roll great. It helped teach me and now I am doing tail touches with it everytime I go out...Knowing how much I paid for it and how easy it would be to repair it REALLY helps when it comes to learning 3D.

It will do an inverted harrier pretty well, but upright harriers are wobbly. It won't do an elevator, but it makes up for it with a climbing flat spin. It will also do very tight waterfalls and KE spins. Elevator and rudder authority is huge. There is no need to enlarge any of the control surfaces because the way it is there is more than enough authority.

For $45 there is no reason not to give this plane a try. Just throw the sticks around and have fun with it. Learn how to hover with this plane and then you can move up to a Morris Plane and you will be able to do ANYTHING with it!

A good cheap plane is the best way to learn 3D and this is a good choice. They are built very strong. I have thrown mine in nose first from 10-15 feet a couple times with NO damage. You won't regret this thing. I probably have 300 flights on mine and am not even close to being bored with it. This one is ALWAYS with me at the field...

If you don't mine spending the $110 or so on a Morris profile, get one. It will be a better 3D trainer and better flying plane, but that doesn't make the Fun 51's bad! With either one I am sure your flying skills with greatly improve and you will have more fun flying than you ever have before!

The airplane on the left under my name is a picture of my "POS"....

Here is a bigger pic-


http://www.********.net/pages/brian/rc/POS.jpg