Regarding stripping down your trainer for parts.. well, as I've said before, most people keep their trainers. If you do strip it down, I can pretty much guarantee that you will be back to looking at putting it back together and flying it.. sooner than you think. It's always nice to go back to basics and just fly the simple trainer. It sort of humbles you a tad because you will find that you will get more capable aircraft and proficient with those.. then going back to the basics, you will proibably have to 'relearn' some of the basic stuff which will really improve your flying the more advanced stuff.

Just a suggestion.

As far as the CUB is concerned.. I would not get it as a second plane, I would opt for a more capable 'trainer' type as a Tiger II or 60, Four Star 40 or 60, or even a Goldberg Protege or something on that order. All very capable yet doscile enough so that you can smoothly progress through that stage. Then perhaps the CUB would be a good one.

CGr.