my favourite is my hype trainer 40
it's a really good plane to learn how to fly
never crashed with itt

I think you might fly the firewall right out of it!

Usually I leave the year old threads alone..but in this case I have something to offer,,the JKAerotech T-52 trainer with a Norvel .061 ,rud,ele,throttle...tough foam, light,packing tape for covering, cheap, light enough to catch a thermal when out of gas....Rog

SPAD Deb--Have flew lots of trainers--Deb is strongest--Easy to fly--Weighs about 1 lb more than regular trainers so it flys better in the wind--Easy to make and cheaper than any kit or ARf

Ok, if it's not a kit or Arf, what is it? Where do you find this bird?

I'm new to the hobby, and absolutely love my Nexstar. The sim is worth the extra few bucks. Made flying ALOT easier for me.

Tim

definitly the lt 40

I started out a few flights on the Aerostar 60 that belonged to my instructor. It was very fast. He took off and lost the plane the day I was going to buy it. We all watched it fly out of control full at throttle as it dived into the trees. It was a tough plane, but not that tough.

I ended up with a second hand Xtra Easy 2, and I have to admit that it is solid and tough too. It is modified for a main gear with nylon bolts. Some reinforcing of the fuselage bottom and firewall with triangular stock has turned it into a great trainer. It has seen some punishment and kept on flying. The Evo .45 training system engine is superb.

The losers that I've seen at the field are:

Eagle 2 ARF Lightweight and won't take much before something gets smashed badly. The built up horizontal stabilizer won't take much before the joints start breaking.

Sig Kadet Senior ARF same thing. It definately won't take much with the flimsy cowl, canopy, and wire main gear. A friend cracked his firewall after a few weeks due to fuel rotting out the wood. A few hard landings and the prop barely clears the ground when taxiing.

I have to put one in for the Aero-Star .40. I have a .46 FX in it, and it really screams. fun stuff. I also have an Eagle .40 with a .46 LA in it. not as fast, or as fun. AERO STAR ALL THE WAY!!!

My all-time favourite trainer is the Arising Star ARF by Seagull Models. Beautiful build quality and flies like a dream for a beginner like me (I still consider myself a beginner after 4 years). I love the way it lands....it doesn't float forever and ever and ever, but it doesn't drop like a brick either. You can do some lovely soft landings and if you convert it to a tail dragger and put some big wheels on it, it handles a rough landing strip very well. Loops and rolls are great fun, it handles the wind very well. Its the only trainer I've flown where I've been able to land smack in the middle of the runway every time (I have a VERY narrow and short runway)

Learned to fly with an Avistar ( 46fx ). I still enjoy flying it. In my humble opinion it`s an all time classic along with the LT-40, PT-40, Alpha, Superstar and maybe a couple of others. Probably would have soloed sooner with an LT-40 or Alpha as the Avistar is a bit " quicker".

I purchased the Nextstar from Hobbico. It flies great, lots of power when I need it, great slow speed flying characteristics, perfect dihedral for a trainer, etc. I purchased the whole kit. It came with plane, engine, radio, and caddy (had to assemble). It is a ARF, and assembly only took about 20 minutes. I have been very happy with it.

I learned on a SPAD [link=http://www.spadtothebone.com/index.htm](Simple Plastic Airplane Design)[/link] [link=http://www.spadtothebone.com/SPAD/Debonair/index.html]Debonair[/link] - with a [link=http://www.spadtothebone.com/SPAD/DasPlasStick/index.html]Das Plastic Stik[/link] style wing built to the Deb dimension. I also made it a tail dragger. The engine was a Thunder Tiger Pro .46.

Now what are the strong points to such a setup as a trainer plane? There are quite a few. And the guys at our club have really noticed and appreciated them.

The plane flies extremely stable. It is among the toughest trainers you will ever find. You can crash it, cartwheel it on landing, slam it on hard landings again and again, and it will keep coming back for more. The plane is quite easy and fast to build. And I built my airframe - complete with tank, tires, landing gear, wheels, and hardware for $22.

I built the plane as a tail dragger because I didn't want to be repairing fire walls, engine mounts, and nose wheels - from hard nose wheel landings. The planes I am looking forward to flying are primarily tail draggers so I wanted to learn take offs and landings for such as early as possible. I did not find learning to control the tail dragger configuration difficult. My instructor had no difficulty teaching me to properly land and take off.

The best part? While I was learning to fly there was virtually no crash worries. I knew that even if totaled I could build another in hours for less than $22 because I'd probably be able to salvage the tank, landing gear, wheels etc for a new build. This freed my mind and emotions from having to be worried about the plane - so I was able to fully concentrate on learning to fly.

I selected the TT Pro 46 engine because it is outrageously reliable and has plenty of power for the plane. My instructor and I never had to spend any time fiddling with the engine. Right from the box it gave us wonderful, flawless performance. Boy, did my instructor appreciate that. It is only now, after many hours of flying, that I understand and appreciate it fully. Incidentially, the plane now gets nearly unlimited vertical with a 12 x 4 prop and a Tower Hobbies muffler.

This set up was very cost efficient. I had to do so due to limited financial means. I never did have to replace the plane during my early learning process. Needed repairs were minor and all came after I soloed while flying on my own. It is still flying today after an auger in at 3/4 throttle from about 50 feet, numerous cartwheel landings on an asphalt runway, and more hard slams on the same runway than I could ever count. I would have gone through 3, possibly 4 balsa planes by now - at a cost I could not have afforded.

So, if you want a low cost, no worries, very tough trainer to learn on I say the Spad Debonair cannot be beat.

Now, if you have the funds available - and you don't care if you have to replace your plane once or twice while you get up to speed on flying - I'd really consider the Sig Senior. Its size makes for very good orientation in flight. It handles like a dream - stable as can be, takes the wind quite well, and darn near lands itself. The ARF is a very good value and builds quite quickly. This plane is also a hoot to fly even for experienced pilots. Put a nice sized four stoke on it and really have a ball.

i'm learning with a Vmar discovery - OS 46 LA - FX18 transmitter.
All works very well and i love the way it flies stable, even in moderate wind.
No buddy cord, we pass over the transmitter.
Learning to land in the next lesson.

karel
ypres, belgiem, europe

I fly A V-mar Apache III Trainer with a V-max .46 flys great and i have just gone solo Yahoo!!
Going to put my V-max .53 in it to run it in for my next project...still on the building board.

Tower Hobbies 60 ARF...hands down the best price...a 60 size trainer for the price of any 40 size...fantastic flyer built by Great Planes

Tower Trainer w/OS .46LA. Takes a lick'n and keeps on tick'n.

Hmmm.... Two OS 46LA's in the last three posts. *Let's see if I can stir up a hornets' nest* Ahem...cough...cough...

I liked the OS 46LA I had in my trainers (Avistar, Tower MK II). Great engine for a trainer. Easy starting, simple tuning, and dependable as hell. Cheap too! Oh yeah, the best trainer I had was the Thunder Tiger Sport 40. It was everthing a beginner needs and could want in a trainer. Looked real nice too.

OK boys, put on your body armor and let the flames, er, I mean games begin!!!

I love the LT40, although mine is in heaven now. I started out with the LA40, then the LA46, and wound up flying it with the Tower Hobbies 46 ABC. This engine is probably one of the most powerful 46's on the market, and if I build another LT40 or get an ARF, I think I'll use it. As far as the Tower 46 is concerned, and I hope this isn't thread drift, don't be scared off by some of the negative things you may have heard. I broke mine in "by the book", and it is a superb engine. It has a great idle without my having to ever touch anything, and I've never had a dead stick with it.
Glen

I personally started with SuperStar 40 which flys great.

The SuperStar 60 flys great also and is larger but doesn't lose any of the characteristics that the 40 has. I have trained many on avistars which is a good trainer, but no a great trainer. The NexStar is good also, but has features that are no good. I normally turn off all the AFS gadgets. They fight you when you need to learn sometime. The Nexstar does fly well, but not as well as the Superstar. The Carl Goldberg Eagle II flys great also.

Any flat bottom trainer will be a good choice to learn on. It becomes a personal choice on color scheme and which one you like best. The sport trainers such as the Avistar are not my first choice, but will do fine also. They are just not as forgiving with the semi-symetrical wings

I went all over the web and to 3 different hobby shops and i came up with a hobbico nexstar. I live out on the desert in Ca. NOt any parks out here. I put my nexstar up and bought a Aero Extreme. I have only had it out one time because of the wind. It was fun the 12 min. it flew. I have been too chicken to get the Nexstar out. Did all of you start with an engine instead of a motor? I thought you had to practice a long time before you were ready for an engine. I am 57 yrs old and hve wanted to fly since I was 10 but i have put it off until now. How much harder is it to fly a Nexstar than the Extreme?

my alpha trainer flys off a 46 la and it flys great i like it a lot but i started on a sig kadet senior

Not many scratch built models, - Just about all are built up balsa kit models! - expensive!!, - makes you a nervous flier!

Flyingrogin post #53 has the right idea, a foamie covered with parcel tape ( good with flat thin wooden spars top and bottom on the wing and fuse sides), - no expense at all, and not much chance of it being written off.
( also extremely easy to repair when necessary). I learnt on a variant of this, and yes, I crashed, and crashed again, but it's still flying today.

Kids, you don't need to spend all your hard earned paper round money on expensive kits!

The Spads seem great too, but people say that the coroplast tends to warp in the sun ( especially sitting in your car), also they tend to be a little heavier, and therfore faster. ( maybe I'll be corrected on this).

I learned with a Midwest Aerostar 40. I built it from a kit. It was very easy to build and rig. It flys great and is very durable. Flat bottom wing provides good lift and the amount of dihedral makes it very forgiving. The instructors at my club prefer either the Midwest Aerostar or SIG Kadet LT40.

Just my opinion!

I would like to interject a little something here. I don't see why a trainer has to be a high wing. My first plane was a Hobbistar 60. My next two were both Avistars. Then I got a 40 size TT trainer. Then I bought the afore mentioned TT Sport 40 and a Tower Voyager. Those two planes (Sport 40 and Voyager) were MUCH easier to handle. Both had OS 46LA engines. Both took a LOT of punishment and kept on going. The took off straight and easy, flew good at slow speeds, handling was a dream and on low rates landing just didn't get any easier. In fact, it was with these planes that I really honed my landing skills with cuz they were so easy. Also, I didn't have to keep bending my landing gear back straight like with the high wings and the long gear. And, to further back up my theory, my girlfriend Christy wanted to learn to fly. I started her with my Voyager. At the end of her first 10 minutes lesson, she was turning the plane where ever I told her to while keeping altitude no prob. She even started doing loops and rolls. At the end of her second 10 minutes lesson, I had her do 5 takeoffs. She only goofed one of them. And besides, they just look better! So it's settled then, everyone ditch your ugly high wings and make those Chinese ppl happy! Go by a Sport 40 today!!! [8D]

Personally I hate trainers for trainers. I taught my son to fly on a Tower Fun-51 with the notorious OS 46 LA and it ran flawless. Something like the Fun-51 isn't insanely pitch sensative like a trainer and still flys slow and gentle.