You guys both have some really good points. My roommate just pointed out that I've not been coming home with the ear-to-ear grin I had for the few weeks I was flying pattern with the Dolphin, so that's a sure sign that I need to concentrate on flying that plane for a while. While I enjoy working on the Decathlon and and enjoy the challenge of getting it to fly, learning to fly it properly, and the challenge of when I will be able to perform the aerobatics it is capable of, I'm not enjoying it the way I was enjoying the Dolphin, or the way I will enjoy a pattern plane, which I won't say 'is the plane for me' but is obviously what I want to be flying right now.

The Decathlon is in worse shape than I thought after the last mishap; lots of work needs to be done to the tail. After the crash today, when I was holding the 55AX in one hand and the Decathlon in the other (broken motor mount) it felt like a sign to put that engine in another plane. I'm going to do some more investigation and see what exactly needs to be done to repair the Decathlon; what seems to be a good idea right now is to take my time with it, maybe hang it up on the wall for when I'm ready to fly a plane that style, and concentrate on flying the Dolphin while I save up for a pattern plane. My roommate (who is also hooked on toys -his are musical but same principles apply) suggested finding a (pattern) plane that the 55AX will fly but would be happier with a bigger engine, so I could get a pattern plane that I would be more happy with without being terribly restricted to a 40/50 size. What a genius!

I'm trying to figure out where I went wrong. When I first got the Dolphin I felt that it was fast and sporty, and maybe a handful to fly; I thought it landed really fast. So I started to look for a high wing, relaxing plane like the Sig Rascal. By the time I was ready to buy this plane the Dolphin felt super stable, able to fly incredibly slow, basically felt like a trainer, so the Decathlon seemed like a nice addition. Then I heard "It's not a trainer." "It doesn't fly like a Cub." "It's based on the Citabria, which is 'airbatic' spelled backwards." "The Decathlon is an Aerobatic trainer, meant to teach pilots how to do aerobatic maneuvers." After I got the plane but before it was assembled I heard "The Decathlon is the plane you want to be flying pattern with." I don't even know if I knew what pattern flying was yet when I was buying this plane, let along having the idea of starting to fly pattern; I went from not even knowing pattern to flying in a pattern meet all within these (3?) weeks. I know someone asked me if I did my research and whether or not I actually thought the Decathlon would perform like my Dolphin. Hearing these things and obviously lacking experience I actually did. The big thing that I was missing and couldn't possibly have understood at the time is that the Decathlon is a plane that is to be flown by the wing, and I didn't know this but I was flying the Dolphin by the prop, so getting the Decathlon to do the things I was doing with the Dolphin is a much different venture.

I've really been struggling on getting flights in with the engine running well. When I do though I am quickly gaining a feel of the plane. I've been making adjustments to improve the flying characteristics and have been making some nice coordinated turns. I haven't had the chance to learn the descent rate of the plane, and haven't gotten to learn how it likes to perform loops and rolls, other than slowly.

Thanks for reading all this. I've been waiting a long time to get into this hobby, and have been very excited about learning to fly and the rate at which I've been learning things. Unfortunately with such excitement comes disappointment sometimes. I can't really change how excited I get over things, especially over flying pattern (and I CAN'T WAIT to get a pattern plane!) because it's just who I am. I was really loving this hobby until a week or so ago, and I love to learn about it and share what I can with other new pilots.

All I know is I want to go back to having the same fun I was having a few short weeks ago. I don't know what happened or where I lost it, but it wasn't long ago that I was bragging about how much I loved my Dolphin. Maybe it's where I started getting critical about how perfect my loops were, and how accurate my lines are. I can fly my Dolphin and am making the last minute corrections necessary to have a straight flying line but then readjust (because the plane is crooked) to get into a loop with the plane straight and level, and have to give aileron input to keep the loop on track. Boring holes in the sky isn't really fun for me anymore. I appreciate a challenge, as I appreciate the challenge of learning to correct for my crooked Dolphin, and the challenge of learning to fly an aerobatic scale plane. I think I would appreciate and enjoy these challenges a lot more if I had nice, straight pattern ship to fly too.