The Aerobat is nothing more than an ARF version of an old Midwest Aerostar trainer kit that has had a flat symetrical wing of the same wing area added with the addition of of dural main gear replaceing the wire gear. I have not flown that version but have bashed a number of them for others and myself in virtually the same way. The Aerostar as a primary trainer along with the Kaydet Senior are my all time favorite trainers and both can be extremly versatile for 'fun things' after the initial training period The Aerobat configured Aerostar is an effective secondary airplane, nimble without a lot of 'evils'. But I feel the big four already mentioned by the guys, Four Star, Tiger 11, Ultra Sport, and SE are among the best of secondary trainers.

BR, As to your question about where your Decathalon comes into the picture. Only you can answer that. Let me give you a little insight on an airplane of that type. While not having flown that particular ship it apparently does not have a great reputation and probably the reason for that has nothing to do with the that airplanes flyability but more to do with the pilots having not developed takeoff rudder skills. Most scale arf's tend to be a bit heavy and must be flown 'on the wing'. What that means is: you will not be ready for it untill you can consistently make takeoffs preferably with a tail dragger in a straight manner down the runway and after intial takeoff with out jumping off the ground at a steep angle. This is another way of saying you must be able to correct for 'P' factor during and after takeoff with
rudder and not aileron which always make things worse.

There is an interesting commercial tape circulating that is nothing but crashes at various events. It is very interesting to note that probably ninety percent of these crashes tend to be heavy beautiful scale types that almost invarably are pulled off the ground after a 'panic takeoff' and go a short distance before rolling over in a stall spin entry to arrive back at the runway in a vertical attitude. So my best thoughts are to wait untill you can fly consistently with one of the big four secondary airplanes and use that rudder smoothly. That Decathalon is no doubt a fine flyer, when flown as intended. By the way it will never perform beautiful figures in the sky as a pattern plane will or will it ever perform gut wrenching 3D tyjpe of flight but will fly very well in a scale like manner with charms of its own.

I wish you the best of luck and appreciate the fact that you seem to be responding to some excellent advice from a lot of good people here on the forum. This is a lifetime passion indeed.

John