Hello,
Over the summer I am looking to build a kit, I'm not sure of what and I need some ideas. I have some experience in repairs but nothing in building. This is my second year flying, and I have experience with an Alpha 40, Avistar 40 and my current plane, the Escapade 40, along with the UMX p51 and Corsair. In the long term, I want to get into scale building/flying (mainly WW2 birds). Any suggestions for a plane would be great. Also, I have never had a four stroke, and was thinking about one. Why is there such a big difference in price between Magnum 4-strokes and Saitos? One more question, I was looking at retracts and was wondering why I could get an arf with retracts (hangar 9) cheaper than retracts alone for a kit (ones for the Top-Flite).
Any suggestions/advice/articles would be great.
Thanks!

Saito are generally known to be quality engines hence the price however I have two magnum 4 strokes and love them at less than half the price. Some say the magnums are hit an miss with the carb quality but mine are both good and I can only speak from what I know to be.

Built up WWII are generally larger planes as they don't scale down to smaller sizes well... usually 1/5 and larger. Also generally reqauire a larger engine due to wing loadings. I don't know of many kits aother than the ARFs that are available and those don't fall into hte kit category.

On the Top Flite retracts I beleive again they are the upper crust.. though I don't know what hangar nine installsin their planes.. I'm sure someone can answer that. I''m into WWI and Glolden Age so my gear stay expsoed

Thanks. Golden Age, please explain...
By the way, I am only looking 40 or 60 size, no larger (unless its not that more expensive or smaller.

Golden age is the time between WW1 and WW2 when aircraft had just become the super cool hi-tech industry to be in so 1000 new companies with 10000 new designs came out in those years. The planes were as much art as machine, so they have quite a few fans.

As for a plane to transition you into warbirds, I had a Ryan PT-20 a few years ago that was a nice forgiving flyer. It was a golden age recreational plane originally called the STA (some kits will be labeled that) that the USAAC bought for primary training as WWII got started. I did a little searching and could only find ARF's except for an expensive version from kitcutters. For a easy to find kit that will let you work on building skills and get you ready for low wing warbirds, the Sig 4 star and the Goldberg Tiger II are very nice sport planes that have been built by the thousands. There are numerous build threads here on RCU for both so help is plentiful.

For a first time kit, I highly recommend a SIG one.  The LT40 I built was straight forward, good instructions, part fitment was excellent, the only part I had trouble with was the elevator having a curve in it, but it fit and works fine.  Its a good flying plane with a FS OS 52 on it. <div>
</div><div>For a war bird, I have a Top Flite 1/7 P-51 that I am building, heavily modified though, otherwise it would have been done by now, and on it I plan to use a DLE20, the plane calls for a .60 to 1.20 size the the DLE20 is a perfect fit.  For a first time builder though, you may want to ease into one of these by building a SIG kit first, the instruction manual is haphazard on the TF, some directions lead you astray and you have to understand what it is you are actually supposed to do, or you will do it wrong.  I did that with the main spars, wasn't pretty. </div><div>
</div><div>For retracts, the ones on ARFs are pretty light weight, and either mechanical or electric, on kits, they are usually air operated, or now you can get some really good electrical ones, but they are much stronger than on an ARF.  A friend of mine has an ARF P-51 with mechanical retracts, he has yet to use them since they are so light that they get bent with every flight. </div><div>
</div><div>Go with the SIG 4* as a first kit, this way you will get the tools, and stuff you need to build with, and a good starter kit to learn from. Then you can advance to the higher end kits for the warbirds. When I finish the P-51, the next one will be a Corsair, just havent decided yet on which kit. </div>

I agree, the Gold Kits Birds by Top Flite are way to advanced. I also feel that while an LT-40 might be a good build, I think it's back a step in flight. In my mind, each plane has a purpose towards becoming a better pilot. The alpha was my introduction, the Avistar was my first taste of aerobatics, my cub teaches me wind control and my escapade teaches me how to fly a small plane with a lot of weight. Each plane takes me closer to my ultimate goal, scale WWII warbirds. Some of the planes I was looking at were: The TF Contender, I would build it with the flap to teach me about the management of flaps, a GP Ultra Sport, either 40 or 60, and install retracts to learn how that affects a plane, or a Sig Something Extra to continue along the lines of scale aerobatics. I may be wrong, but this seems like the next step for me.
Thanks for all of the help and if I missed a plane or I'm wrong about something, let me know!

Moved to Kit Building

Since you are now flying an Escapade 40, I think a GP Ultra Sport would be the next logical step but the other planes you mentioned would be fine too. I like the way you are going at this.

Bruce