I am teaching my son with an 1800 wingspan "old timer" with an OS25, mode 1 with the rudder where the ailerons ussually are (with the throttle).

He is having a ball, I took it up and handed the radio without hardly any instructions and he started to fly lower and lower until he was doing take offs and even a couple of landings on his first day.

I just told him if you get in trouble power off and take your hands off the transmitter - the thing stabilises itself. Yes, he thrashed it a bit, but you really have to want to destroy one to really wreck it, this thing is so light that takes quite a bit of thrashing without damage.

Second weekend he tells me he's not nervous any more and he's really enjoying flying, that's a lot more than I had to say after three months with an instructor. I asked him if he wanted to move to the trainer, but he wants a few more hours on the old timer before he does and I'm not pressuring him (he's 22 by the way).

Sorry if I can't tell you the model, I picked the airframe from ebay for 20 bucks and spent 200 on the covering and accessories (arggg ARFs from China are so much cheaper and give me so little trouble I wonder why they don't make old timers ARF....), but I had a Powerhouse, a Red Zephyr and Simplex in the eighties and for those who remember them it looks and flies like the Simplex.

I'm no expert but I believe that trainers are crap to learn with, make your student fearful, remove all enjoyment and perhaps even turn people off from the sport.