Once more with feeling...

To those of you who want to join this hobby, I have been flying for about a year, just so you know where I'm coming from.

If you join a club and train with an instructor and try to fly conservatively and don't try to fly inverted 10 feet off the ground the RISK of crashing a 40 sized trainer is pretty low. My LT-40 is still in one piece. Of the other four guys in our training program only one had a major crash and he was trying a flat spin on his fourth solo flight. So, we're talking 5 brand new pilots, 5 various 40-sized trainers, and several hundred flights over six months.

There is a group of posters on these boards who for various reasons continue to imply that you will crash and crash and crash. Some seem to be doing it to promote SPADS (because they are "indestructible"), some seem to be doing it because they may actually crash and crash and crash.

I firmly believe that after six or 10 flights with an instructor, YOU will KNOW when you are putting your aircraft at risk and you can decide if you want to do that or if you want to be more safe/conservative.

Yes, over 10 or 20 years, gravity will claim one or more of your airplanes. But the risk of this with a trainer, if you DO NOT push it past its envelope is LOW.

You DO NOT have to choose an indestructible airplane because your trainer is doomed to crash on every flight.

I think some of the SPADs are kind of cool looking, but I find it very annoying that they keep trying to take over every thread where someone says they are looking at a balsa trainer.