I picked one of these up this week and I think it flies pretty well. As far as tapping the rudder to make a smooth turn, this will become natural in short order.

We've got it easy these days, toy quality planes like this are actually better than the hobby quality equipment we had when I got started in the mid 60's.

My first R/C plane was a Carl Goldberg Jr Falcon with a Cox .049 for power and used radio equipment. The used radio consisted of a Controlaire Mark II Mule transmitter, regenerative receiver and Bonner escapment.

The transmitter used a 9 volt battery that measured about 3" wide x 4" tall x 1 1/2" deep and cost about $15.00 in todays money.

The escapment is what controlled the rudder and required a rubber band wound like a rubber powered airplane to operate.

When you pressed the button (yes that's the only control you had) the escapment would rotate 1/4" turn and a torque rod would swing the rudder either right or left depending on the neutral position it was in when you pressed the button.

When you released the button the escapment would rotate another 1/4" turn returning to neutral. To make a smoth turn you would press the button to make the plane turn and if it was in the direction you wanted to turn you would double press, hold for a short time and repeat as necessary to make your turn.

Believe it or not you can do loops and immelman turns with rudder only.

If you could afford servos it was much easier, single press for right double press for left triple press caused the second servo to move to one of three positions for throttle control.