dura-plane trainer 40
 

does anyone fly these planes? i have one and i'll tell ya it one tough bird!! i've crash it bad twice, put it back together and flew some more:D. the guy's at my flying field just can't get over how durable this thing is.
here's some pic's of yesterday's high speed[sm=lol.gif] low pass,i thought i was higher than i was over the cotton field,ya'll should have seen the cotton fly! i thought ghee-grose was going to hurt him self laughing,
me to:D. only damage do was a broken prop,and a hard wood dowel that hold the rubber band on the wing and the landing gear was bent a little.

RE: dura-plane trainer 40
 

here's the after crash pic's

RE: dura-plane trainer 40
 

Mine didn't survive its first crash. I think they are too heavy for a first trainer, and a bit small.
I bought mine as a test bed, to break-in engines, try out new radio gear, etc. I lost radio contact and it nosed in hard. The wing broke in two, only the aluminum spar keeping the two wing halves together. It trashed a good engine, too. I kept the aluminum rail and the tail feathers, and I've thought of building another one with a balsa built-up wing to lighten it up a bit, but I can't find the square PVC pipe for a new fuse.

Jesse

RE: dura-plane trainer 40
 

Hi....My son had one of these and flew it wwwaaayyyy beyond what it was supposed to be able to handle. He crashed many times and rebuilt it every time. It was a great trainer. It definately taught him to be a better flier.

The fuse is nothing more than a PVC gutter downspout you can get at Menards. One length of spout makes about 6 fuses, so you have a few crashes left !!

Fly the heck out of this plane and have some fun!!:)

bipeguy

RE: dura-plane trainer 40
 

Here's a trick i done on mine, i put balsa wood in the aluminum channel to help elimanate the flexing of the tail section, i also made it into a taildragger. that helped with the cutting grass syndrome.here's some pic's of the tail wheel,it also steerable. look closely and you'll see it a sullivan tail wheel,i mounted a servo arm to the channel with washers ,then icut the steering rod from the rudder to the servo arm then i used a piece of wire(control wire works good)to connect it to a servo arm mounted on the tail wheel assembly, it works great.

keepem flying

RE: dura-plane trainer 40
 

I still have my Dura-Plane that my dad bought me when I was 13 (almost 20 years Ago). I fly it a few times a year and it has seen a few bad encounters with terra-ferma. Mine was the 3 channel version that I converted to a 4 ch. and made into a conventional gear too. It is a major hand full on the ground, loves to ground loop. Just reading this post makes me want to go fly it, it has been a long time since I took it out. [8D]

RE: dura-plane trainer 40
 

i enjoy flying my trainer 40,it was my first gas plane,my friends at my field just can't get over the abuse that plane take and keep on going! if something ever happens to it i'll get another one for shure:D.
to me it's a easy plane to fly,since i made it into a tail dragger it handles good on the ground to.

RE: dura-plane trainer 40
 

I taught myself to fly with this plane over ten years ago and still have it, er well part of it anyway. Now it's hard to tell what it was in the beginning. I've added a Magnum .75, Joss Stick wings and horizontal stab and twin tails. I also have a drop box under it for dropping candy at fun flies. Yea it's a flying brick but it'll haul over 5lb of candy on engine alone :D

RE: dura-plane trainer 40
 

that a cool looking plane, i bet the kid's love it when the candy drops:D

RE: dura-plane trainer 40
 

Yea they love it :D It has flaps so it's not too terribly hard to get it off the ground. I also added dual nose gear to it but you can't really see that. Also, since it has those crosses on it, I added lettering to the bom bay that says "Derbommenplane" :D My favorite candy to drop are those neon colored pixie sticks that Dollar General sells. They really scatter and are very easy to see on the ground. BTW, it's a bashed ARF so I guess you would call it a "BARF" ;)

RE: dura-plane trainer 40
 

I had one as my second plane and did most of my "learning" to fly on one. Got out of the hobby for a while and back in last year and bought the Dura-Stick. Not the best flyers (not bad either) but man they will take a beating. I converted my Trainer 40 to a taildragger too and as you say it was a bit squirly. I fly SPAD's a bit now and you can't be the price, ease, and durability of the PVC/Aluminu/Coroplast airplanes.

RE: dura-plane trainer 40
 

i done it again,ouch!!showing out a little and pow into the ground!! it hit flat on the belly, the gear came loose on inpact and broke my tail wheel, owell i'll have her in the again this week.:D man, this is one tought bird.

I'm putting one together I've had for many years, never tried it before because everyone said it was to heavy .... but now I need something to fly : wish I had the instructions or plans ! Anyone have them ?

Thanks
Jayd