I bought a Nextar ARF not RTF for my son for his birthday. He is 10. I bought the Nextar ARF, a futaba 4 channel comp. radio, and a thunder tiger pro 46. He and I assembled it together. I beefed up the bolts for the engine and thouroughly checked everything out. It took about 6 hours of assembly and my son stuck it out throughout the build (of course, it took longer because I was giving instruction and he was building 50% of it) There are a few things that he couldn't do because he just doesn't have the physical strength yet. He learned alot more this way. Monday, he had his first flight on the trainer cord. At first it was difficult then, about halfway through the flight something clicked and he did 5 - 6 laps around the feild with no help. Later that day I got him up again, this time he flew the pattern without me taking over for at least ten minutes!!!! He is only 10!!! He will probably solo in about 1-2 months or sooner. I thought that I would be at my whits end training my son but WOW I cannot wait to go back to the club!!! He told me on the way home that flying was like REAL VIDEO GAMES ! pretty cool huh?

I have flown quite a few trainers over the years and all of them have their strong points and weak points. The training garbage on the Nextar really works. It gives the Newbies lots of confidence on their first few flights. Yes, it does make the tail sink and doesn't look that scale like but for a beginner that really doesn't matter. When a beginner gets board with this plane and can sucessfully take off and land, then the training garb comes off.

I give this plane an A+ for now. When the training garb comes off, I will beef up the wing joint and glue the tail on permanently - untill then, I will keep an eye out for anything that is loose or weak.

Have fun