ORIGINAL: Nathan King
Woah, let's slow down here for a minute. I'm not sure if I would recommend jumping into a purpose built pattern airframe at this time. You're at the point in this hobby where you're the hardest on your models you'll probably ever be. You're off the leash so to speak, but still figuring things out (and bending airframes in the process). Why would you want to spend the time and money to set up a nice little intro pattern aircraft when there's a fair chance you may bend/break something to the point where it may not fly as well as it did. Then you're going to be in the same place you are now, frustrated and not happy with how the airplane flies wishing you had something else, plus you'll have a lighter wallet. I'm not saying don't do it. I can't really even recommend anything with absolute confidence because I don't know your flying skill and can't see you fly.
Don't forget, you've got the rest of your life to fly models ahead of you. You're not going to be the most skilled pilot at the field with the nicest, straightest, best set up, and most high end aircraft. It just isn't realistic.
Nate, you rock! I can't believe I was being so blind to this. I was frustrated by the crooked Dolphin and banged up a perfectly good Decathlon over it. Who am I to say I won't do this to a pattern ship then be even more discouraged?
P.S. What do you have against the Super Decathlon? It seems like you've been fighting with it from day one. I just can't figure out why.
I don't know but this is what I was thinking. I took so much time and did my best putting it together. I admit I was disappointed from the first flight, and dumped it on the second out of frustration, but since then I've been doing my best to adapt to it. This last mishap really banged up the tail and broke the aluminum motor mount, so it's going to be a week before it's fixed. Will be flying Dolphin in the mean time.
I need to get some sleep and fly my Dolphin.