Most RC flyers take off and land on grass air strips rather than on paved runways. Nathan is spoiled by flying at one of the nicer flying sites in the Midwest, Hawk Field in Omaha, NE has a 500' paved runway and is so nice that it was featured as an additional flying site for Aerofly Professional Deluxe's first expansion pack. Ikarus even used flying scenes from Hawk Field in their magazine ads.

Grass airfields aren't necessarily any harder on landing gear than paved runways. Grass runways do need to be "rolled out" periodically to assure a smooth, even surface underneath the grass. A grass runway that hasn't been rolled out or maintained properly can chew up landing gear quite spectacularly.

With regard to the Hangar 9 Pulse XT that was mentioned previosly, it too is a fine sport plane and would fly quite well with ro347's .46 AX in it. The Pulse XT is more similar to the Four Star or Goldberg Tiger in handling characteristics, however. The number one complaint about the H9 Pulse XT .40 from folks who have flow them? Weak landing gear.

Nathan's advice is correct in that, sooner or later ro347, you're going to need to learn how to repair, rebuild, modify, and improve your airplanes. Take the time now and get some help from a more experienced builder in your club. Whether you decide on another Super Sportster or a Pulse XT, Four Star, Goldberg Tiger, Phoenix Dolphin, GP Easy Sport, or whatever, take the extra time to reinforce the landing gear as best you can.

The only way to develop the building and repairing skills that you don't already have is to wade into a project, give it a try, and make some mistakes. If you don't, the alternative is simply piling up old ARFs because you have to replace them every time you crack a fuselage or ding the leading edge of a wing. That's going to be way more expensive in the long run than simply spending the extra time and money now to learn how to fix and rebuild.