SSE is my second plane and I have had no problems with it. There is no rule of everyone. I had 4 days with instructor and then another 4 days out and I was ready.

Now, the key was rates and an instructor:

* I had the SSE set to high and low rates.
* I had instructor maiden it; also had someone stand beside me for first few flights "just in case" (i.e. just in case something like what Poffit had happen)

After the maiden, on his advice, I dropped the low rates to 40% of high rates. I also set expo at -40%. Then it was as gentle as a trainer.

When I was 3 mistakes high, I played with the high rates to just see that I will not use high rates for a while. But on low rates, it is fun to fly and easy to land.

I did have contrasting colors (orange on top and purple on bottom). The orange was easy to see "in the sun" but with the sun to the belly, the orange looked black, so top and bottom were impossible to see (orientation was determined by response to direction of thumbs). I added some white strips to the belly and now is all good again.

Anyway, this whole "second plane debate" gets a little lost. We have one guy at our club who is 1 year plus on trainer and still needs an instructor and has crashed by himself several times. Every flier is different and there is no hard and fast rule. Of course, if it turns out you could not handle it, then you moved up too fast.

(There is another active post right now on 2nd and 3rd plane and someone in there said that 4* is not a good second plane so my point is that there is no shortage of opinion)