gaRCfield,

After you’ve soloed and you think you’re beyond a trainer is when you probably need to fly one the most. There is nothing wrong with an Avistar and its capability. I regularly show my student early on in their flight training the performance capability of their trainers – be it a NextStar, Alpha 40/60, Sky Raider Mach I, etc, and they are very surprised when they see how much capability their plane has. What you need to work on now is precision in your maneuvers. Don’t just pull elevator and say that was a loop – look at all the aspects of a loop and how to make the loop perfectly round and track straight, the snaps enter/exit perfectly level, spins that come out exactly on the heading as entered, rolls that like they are on a string – no heading or altitude deviation. Flying a more advance plane is one thing, flying it well with smoothness and precision is another. When you can fly an Avistar as smooth as somebody flying an Extra or Yak-54, then you’ll really enjoy it when you move up to that class of plane.

For me, I don’t care what the plane is, I enjoy flying them all – from a 2M glider or Slow Stick to giving instruction on a basic trainer to flying a pylon racer, pattern plane or WWII scale. And a lot of times I enjoy just taking a trainer up and shooting nothing but touch-n-go’s.

I’d suggest getting another Avistar that you’d be more comfortable with and working on the precision aspect. Do some research on aerobatics and practice, practice, practice.

Hogflyer