The hangar 9 P51 PTS is serviceable as a trainer, with an apt student. It's really not that bad, but it's got a few characteristics that are less than perfect for training.

With all the training aids installed (air brakes, naca droops, 3 blade prop), it will fly slowly and stall gently, but I found it's performance to be a bit wanting, just too draggy and not enough thrust from the PTS prop. It will self-correct to a certain degree, but by no means as quickly or positively as a good traditional trainer.

With the aids removed, it actually becomes a pretty nice sport plane. It has some weakness especially in the LG mounts (shown up easily by the nube attempting to land her!), but this can be fixed pretty easily. To me, tho, there are better sport scale mustangs. Without the proper nose slope curve (the top of the nose profile in the PTS is straight), and with too long a tail section, it looks a bit goofy to me.

It is definately NOT the best trainer out there, not even close. It is pretty to look at and many can learn on it though, so it continues to be popular. I'd hazard a guess that the average PTS mustang life span is about 2/3rds that of a traditional trainer design.

Really, that Sr. Falcon you've got will make a superior trainer. Many people here (newbies) have it in their mind that a trainer can do little more than gentle circles, the odd loop and a touch'n'go or 2. Set up with a proper CG location (most are nose-heavy), adequate power (most have this already), and adequate control throws, almost any trainer is capable of surprisingly advanced aerobatics, including snaps, spins, loops, rolls, inverted flight (even high dihedral flat bottom wings!) and lots more. Harder to do perfectly, but what you learn on it will keep you amused and put you in the best spot for that hot aerobat or warbird of your dreams.

I have a mustang, a giant, a half-a flying boat. I still fly my trainer most. I do need a nice aerobat, tho....

J