I'm an RC heli pilot looking to cut my teeth in the airplane world. I had finally decided on Hangar 9's Arrow 40 for its increased capabilities over a traditional trainer, even though its a little more expensive. Well I went to place my order this morning and I realized it has been discontinued, its out of stock everywhere.

There's still spare parts available for it though; so I'm wondering, could I get Hangar 9's Alpha 40 instead and eventually buy and install the Arrow's wings on the Alpha? Would that even work? Would it then behave like the Arrow would have?

I'm also looking at Hangar 9's P-51 Mustang trainerhttp://www.horizonhobby.com/Products...ProdID=HAN4425which is the same price as the Arrow would have been, and looks like it might be even more capable?

I'm open to other suggestions, but obviously I'd like to go nitro with this purchase. Thanks!<br type="_moz" />

Nick.. The Hangar 9 P-51 is a pretty nice plane and very capable. You will need to have a very smooth runway if you are going to learn with it. I would suggest a tricycle gear ship for your first airplane and not a P-51, although some have been successful with the Hangar 9 Mustang. You will have an edge over most plank beginners with your heli time, but will still need to sort some things out. Good luck!

You might have to twiddle wing incidinces with a wing swap.

BTW, the Alpha wing is somewhat harder to repair compared to say an Avistar. It uses a spar setup similar to a TJI engineered structural beam with spruce/hardwood for the flanges, and the spar strip is quite small in cross section and doesn't afford much gluing area.

I reckon go with the P51 PTS. I stll have mine after hundreds of flights and its performance is as good as any ARF/RTFwarplane. Start off with the flaps mechanically down and the other suggestions in the manual until you have got the hang of it. You can progressively raise the flaps (install the servers for functional flaps), get a faster prop and finally remove the droops for a fully fledged warplane. The fixed landing gear is canted well forward and pretty strong so the plane will not tip or break the undercarraige on rough landings (both are typical problems with warplanes). The plane is reasonably tough and simple compared to a heli, I just got mine back in the air after snapping it in half when I lost Rx contact.

I was/am a nitro heli pilot who went over to his first plank a little while back (a 65" '40' high wing trainer with a .61 2 stroke in it).
While I agree there is a little to learn re handling differences etc, if I was to do it again, I'd go for a good '2nd' plane (hangar 9 Pulse XT or Great Planes Revolver), or even a warbird over a trainer, as the second flight was all it took to know that the trainer wouldn't last long before I was wanting to upgrade.
I'd get what you want, and buddy-box with an instructor and use your sim (most heli pilots have them) to gain that required 'feel' until your at a point you can safely go solo.

Just my 2 cents worth.

As long as you have someone to help you through the first flights via a buddy box, heli pilots seem to have no problems starting off with a good "second" plane.

I've taught several heli pilots with Pulse's and Escapades.

After they've mastered landings and takeoffs, the biggest problem I found, was to get them to lay off the rudder.

In one instance I saw a student's plane wiggling a lot in flight. I couldn't understand why as I had checked it out for him.

I asked him to hand me the TX, and the wiggling stopped immediately.... I handed it back and it resumed... then I noticed that he was constantly wiggling the rudder stick.

OK, I'm a little intimidated, but I think you guys have convinced me on the P-51. <div>
</div><div>I do have RealFlight and when I mess around with the planes it does seem almost comically easy, so much so that I don't think the simulation can be as accurate to real life as it is with heli's.</div><div>
</div><div>Unfortunately, I live in a rural area with no RC aircraft community, so I won't have the benefit of someone to buddybox me. But I didn't have that benefit with heli's either, and that seemed to work out alright.</div><div>
</div><div>Another thing I should have mentioned is my flying environment. I live on a 4-acre walnut orchard, which may sound ideal, but there's no one big open space because of all the damn trees. Its fine for heli flying, but now that I'm actually thinking about the logistics of flying a plane between them I'm a little worried. The property is on a lake, but frankly the thought of flying over water scares me worst than possibly flying into a tree.</div><div>
</div><div>Might I want to go with the slower Alpha to more easily weave through the trees, or is that just wishful thinking and I'm going to have to drive to an open field to fly either of them anyway?  Thanks for all the help!</div>

You will need a wide open field for any nitro plane. You will need at least 200m clear in all directions for your first flights. It would be worthwile visiting the nearest model flying field you can find and getting someone to take the plane up for you. A nitro plane will need at least 100m for take-off/get to cruising altitude and 100m to set up your landing approach. You can't rush your landing with a nitro - it needs plenty of room and the ability to go around if your landing approach looks bad - the last thing you want to worry about is running into a tree. 


If you want to fly around the orchard, it would be best to try a foam style plane. Many are a real blast in tight spaces, with biplanes being the best  (like the Waco foam biplane), but you might want to start with a super cheapee (like the Ultra-microstick, or similar) that will turn on a dime. The E-Flite Apprentice is another possibility - it is a large trainer style plane, but has good power and control. You only need about 20m to take off and clear the nearest trees. However, you will want to start in a wide field to get the hang of the plane, particularly landings.

+1 on that, at least you can glue a foam plane back together.
I have been thinking about one of these myself (http://www.xtremehobby.ashop.com.au/...propeller.html), not too small or light, cost effective, take off on a dime, get pretty good reviews, I've seen videos where they 'bounce' pretty well when it goes wrong, and can be glued back together if they don't (within reason of course). For myself, I think it'll be a good aircraft to leave in the trunk of my car when out of town on business, and it don't look half bad too!

Actually it's the other way around.

If you find heli's realistic in Realflight, the planes are doubly so... often exhibiting second and third order quirks and effects in a predictive modeling fashion... much more than any other sim...

However planes are affected by winds more than heli's are so you are advised to practice with the sim, with the winds dialed up to about 12mph with about a 20% micro turbulence, and a 20% turbulence/variability. Also set the turbulence ceiling as high as possible.