I just returned to the hobby after about a fourteen year layoff.

I had a couple of old Stiks in storage and a King Cobra. I recovered the 40 size Sweet Stik for my trainer it has a bit of dihedral and always flew well. It was not that big of a deal getting the ole bird airborne again and trimmed out. I was a bit shaky at first until I could get the bird stablized and re-trimmed. After that it was like riding a bike a bit wobbly at first, but it came back quick. Right now I fly alot of normal patterns for orientation and coordination to re-program the coconut computer sitting on my shoulders.

Next I rebuilt a straight wing Stik complete with tune pipe which I now have about a dozen flights on so far. Its alot quicker and certainly performs better than the Sweet Stik. Still having some poor roll issues to the left with it, but it flies fine for the most part.

Today I flew the King Cobra again for the first time since the layoff. Cleaned the dust off, gave the airplane some sprucing up and it was ready to fly. My King Cobra is an intermediate pattern ship with a 10CC Webra and a tune pipe. Once trimmed up the Cobra flew far better the Stiks far more stable and a better aerobatic bird.

My first flight was about six weeks ago, got my club checkride the second week of coming back. No instructor, flew as a guest flyer at the club I'd previously been a member of for a few days for practice and then took the checkride which was no problem.

The radio advice your getting is very sound! I had six obsolete Futaba radios leftover from before all with dead Tx and reciever batteries. It was not worth the cost of replacing batteries on old technology when I could get a new DX7 Spectrum for a not much more than replacement of batteries. The DX7 will fly 20 airplanes, the radio does so much more than any equipment I had before. Programming the DX7 is not difficult and the tech support for the radio is great if needed. So far I'm flying three airplanes and two helis operating the DX7. The Tx's memory recalls each aircraft separately, and its trim functions when selected. Plus you don't have to worry about getting shotdown by another flier with the Spectrum technology. Well worth the investment!

Good luck with your comeback, it won't take you long to be backup to speed.

Steve

Good flying and welcome back!