Oh oh oh...Monkey boy .. tough combat planes are tough combat planes...but there is a difference. Has a BUHOR, DPS, Spadet, Spadstick or Spa3d shown up at your field yet?

I only wish Spads would have been around in the late 70's. If they would have been, it wouldn't have taken over 20 years and 40 airplanes to get as good as I wanted to be so that I could move on to my third plane. BTW, for my opinion on using these planes as a first plane see this thread: http://www.rcuniverse.com/showthread...highlight=spad

And I'm still learning. Just this year I've done my first Hover, first torque roll, first inverted climbing flat spin, first tail touch...waterfall...harrier...inverted harrier...rolling harrier...inverted stab drag...etc...etc...stuff I wouldn't have even tried in a million years if I had a lot of time or mony into my plane. It's a lot like water skiing. If your gonna get good, you gotta be on the edge, and we all know what happens I would now have the taters and confidence to do these stunts with a balsa plane if I desired to.

I'm with Hooter, if there is one nitche that these plane fill perfectly, it's as a second plane...to get you to "jump the wake" so to speak before trying it with a lot of money and time involved. Sassy will tell you that the biggest difference between learning on her LT-40 and soloing on her Debonair was nerves. Some of us have forgotten how much of a player that is to newer pilots. These planes take that out of the equation.

Some people (like me) continue to fly them exclusively, because aerodynamics, performance, weight and wingloading has indeed progressed to the point of equaling and in some case exceeding today's conventional airplanes. Some people (Like Kraut and Mr. Clean) continue to fly plastic as well as Balsa, as both are equal and viable options to our hobby. Some people will use these planes as a stepping stone to gain the confidence and reactions they need for their pride and joy dream airplane (Fun Fly and 3D guys have really picked up on this!), and some people are not interested. And if you've ever wanted to try your hand at designing your own airplane, this couldn't be more perfect...but, as I've said before...that's a topic for the Spad forum)