I'm new to RC airplane flying, my only experience is a buddy-box flight with an instructor at my dad and I's club we belong to, on my dad's Hobbico Nexstar (gas engine).
well now the time has come for me to get my own plane so I can start learnign too, but on my own plane.
I'm looking for some recomendation from more experienced pilots on a good RTF trainer to buy, that preferablely is easy to learn on and will be fun for a while. I'm open to both electric and gas, however, I am personally leaning toward gas. As for material i can't speak on, but my dad says to probably stay away from foam, maybe stay on the lager side reguarding size.

sorry, I know I laid down a lot of guide lines, but please feel free to post, stuff listed above is preferable, not manditory.

thanks for your help and see you in the skies!

Well, as far as I am concerned, the Nexstar you started off with is just fine.

You are familiar with it, it comes as an ARF or RTF, and is large enough to see very well. I'd stick with that.

But, if you want something different, well, check out the list of trainers that are in the thread at the beginning of this Forum. You can pick from any of them and be very well satisfied.

By the way, these are Glow Fuel powered, not Gas. Gas sort of implies gasoline or petrol... Glow is Alcohol with Nitro Methane and an oil blend.

CGr.

And I'm one that doesn't like the nexstar at all. I do like the tower and hanger nine trainers a lot. Look in the sticky threads and pick out what you like, it's your plane.

Check out the sticky, but I always recommend the Hanger 9 Alpha (there's a glow and an electric version). If you go glow, skip the RTF version and get an OS 55 or a TT Pro 46. You'll get a lot more satisfaction than the Evolution that comes with the RTF.


Brad

<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Calibri" size="3">I am new to this too and having tried both a basic (PT40) and an advanced trainer (Avistar), this is my opinion.</font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Calibri" size="3">You have 2 choices, a basic trainer or an advanced trainer. The Nexstar is a basic. I don’t recommend them. They don’t fly like other planes. If you want to learn to fly other planes, why would you go to one that doesn’t. They tend to go back to their original position when you turn. Regular planes don’t. They are supposed to forgive you if you make a mistake, but they exhagerate too much on the dihedral of the wings, the flat bottom etc which gives you a plane that is very different from the rest. Finally, you will get bored with the basic trainer a month after you learn to fly it.</font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><font face="Calibri" size="3">Take an instructor and get yourself an advance trainer like the Avistar. Later you can grow with this plane, and it’s as safe and as forgiving like the Nextstar and it flyies like other planes and can do a lot of maneuvers. Its only problem is the bouncing. The Alpha 40 is also another good choice. I flew this one in the flight simulator to learn and I liked it.</font></p>

My CFI told me bigger is better so Istarted looking around at .60 size trainers. I decided on the Hobbico Hobbistar 60 Select (RTF). It's a big'un:


Almost fully assembled - on the dining room table. by JD and Beastlet, on Flickr

Here is the direct link to the 'Looking for a trainer, what's available. (Updated 12-18-2009)' thread
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=4537845

Everyone has a favorite and a least favorite. The truth is that you can learn to fly using any of the trainers on the list.

One of my favorites is the Hobbico Hobbistar 60. It is on the list in the ARF section but is also available as RTF. Here's the link to it at Tower
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...I=LXGHD4**&P=7
The primary reason it is my favorite is due to the size. It and the Nexstar are the biggest trainers I know of that available as RTF.

>>Edit<< JD & Beastlet beat me to it..........

Sig's LT-40 trainer is nearly a 60 size but flies on a more economical 40-46 engine. I really enjoyed our—both the build of the kit and flying (for which we did for 4 seasons). It lives on today as one of our club's trainers.

[link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_3477988/tm.htm]Another LT-40 Success Story[/link]

YES!! HobbiStar 60's fly's GREAT!!! Thread is done, mods, you can go ahead a lock it!!

Seriously, the HobbiStar 60 was my 2nd plane and it fly's sooooo much easier than the 40 sized SuperStar. That says a lot about the HobbiStar 60 because the Superstar 40 is a great plane too.

The HobbiStar is super stable yet is has more power than most "trainers". This means that it will climb faster with a little less aileron input. This means less stress when taking off. Unlike most "trainers", it also has a SEMI symmetrical wing. It means you can grow into the HobbiStar rather than outgrowing a regular trainer. It fly's inverted very well, and has slightly more inverted elevator authority than a flat wing trainer too. This means a faster inverted recovery than a standard flat wing trainer....

I vote for the HobbiStar 60. GREAT PLANE.........

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDOUcKkc89Q[/youtube]

I'm with PipeMajor. The LT-40 is an awesome plane! My other suggestion would to forget about RTF planes if you plan on sticking to this hobby. The radio gear is bargain basement and eventually youll upgrade your gear anyway. And then your stuck with a cheap radio system that has no market value.

I also agree on the SIG LT planes. Started my RC life on a .25 with an OS .46 LA on it. Plenty of extra get up and go, throttles back nicely and can stay up for well over 20 minutes, and is still alot of fun to play with now that I am beyond the trainer stages.. My partner and I try to fly as close as we can to eachother in circuit with them.. if we crash, what the he!!.. more room for something else.. again, fantastic planes, both the .25 AND the .40.. Personally, I would put an OS .60 LA in the .40 size, just because I like the extra power to play with and it also gets them up on skis in bad snow alot easier..

The OP is looking for an RTF, not a kit.

I do not think the radio gear in the Hobbistar RTF is bargain basement. From the tech notes
Radio: Futaba 6EXAP with four servos (box shows a 6YG)

This is a basic 6 channel computer radio with 6 model memory, digital trims, dual rates, expo, and some mixing functions. Enough to keep many pilots occupied for their first few planes.

the only thing I don't like about the nextar is the price, for 80 - 100 dlls less, you can get the tower trainer RTF or the Alpha, I would get the alpha.

There is no "Tower Hobbies RTF". It is an ARF with "recommended" accessories and a bundled system with a 2.4 GHz radio system. The price for this package is very competitive with most of the other real RTF systems, but this, being an ARF, requires more assembly than any of the true RTF models.

Now, I have to add this. I lilke the Nexstar RTF. I trained with it, solo'ed with it, and passed it on to another member who flew it until he solo'ed. I am sorry to say that he passed away shortl y after that from cancer.

Aaaaanyway, an RTF is one that is ready to fly in just a few minutes where an ARF has assembly that will require components.. radio receiver, servos, servo set up, and an engine with that setup and connection to a servo.

As I said, I like both as I've flown both. It comes down to what you want: an RTF with just the basic setup, or an ARF with more "advanced" setup, or a kit where you do everything. Your choice.

CGr.

Dick,
There is a Tower Trainer RTF, but unfortunately it is "temporarily unavailable". But Ihave put several students into training with the RTFpackage. In fact, Ifound out how easy it was to build one of these last summer. Hada student that bought one but we could never get our schedules to match up for me to help him put it together. So finally Itold him to plug the transmitter and receiver batteries in to charge and then bring the whole box to the field the next morning. We put the entire plane together in 20 minutes on the tailgate of his truck!!!! So it is really almost a true RTF.

I hope they have it available again soon.

Ken

I started on a Nexstar, and found it very easy to fly. I had to sell it a few months later, but then bought a used Superstar 40 the next season. No matter how hard I tried, I could never get that Superstar into a death spin, and it would land its self every time. It was just a totally impossible plane for me to crash, no matter what compromised position I could think of.

I would start with what I know first, the Nexstar. It won't be excessively forgiving like other trainers, as long as you don't use the AFS. But if you want something that's more like the others, the Hobbico Superstar 40 will probably be around for you to pass to your grand kids, if you don't get tired of it first.

NorfolkSouthern