Yesterday I had the pleasure of flying a Carl Goldberg Protege 60. Having been a flight instructor for some time now I have flown many different trainers and was expecting more of the same. In actuality, the Protege delivered quite the opposite. The first thing I noticed about the airplane was how well it handled. The Protege is very responsive while still maintaining very smooth maneuvering characteristics. Many trainers are either terribly unresponsive or "twitchy," but the designers of the Protege managed to strike a perfect balance between response and controllability for beginners. The wind was gusting slightly, but the Protege took it in stride and penetrated the gusts very well for a trainer; It wasn't like a hot knife through butter like some large aerobats, but very good nonetheless. For those of you who are past the buddy box the Protege can still deliver a delightful flight. This airplane does not immediately "balloon" when increasing the throttle. In fact, the airplane gently noses up and climbs steadily just like it should. After I climbed way up (it wasn't my airplane, so I didn't do anything low) I did some rolls and inverted circuits. After I was satisfied at the airplane's roll rate and rudder authority I did some rolling circles. They weren't the prettiest since the airplane was so high I couldn't feel "plugged in" to it. Like I mentioned, this was not my airplane, so I didn't want to disrespect the owner by doing this lower. This trainer actually has the rudder authority for some good looking hammerheads if you keep a little throttle on it. It doesn't need loads of opposite aileron input in the hammerhead because the low amount of dihedral cuts down on roll coupling with rudder. The only thing I noticed is that at some attitudes the airplane overrotated slightly in the rolls. This could also have been partially because I'm used to my fast coreless digitals - I'm not sure.

Anyway, this airplane is for students and intermediate pilots alike - Don't overlook it!