G'day

These days ARFs have the bulk of the market but some people still want to build kits. Here is my take on the Balsa USA Student Trainer.

A friend who has about two years experience in flying RC recently decided he would like to actually build a model. He had seen models I have built and a couple were from Balsa USA so he went to their website and found the Student Trainer.

The Student Trainer is described as a "Building Trainer". It is not intended to teach you to fly but rather how to build. It comes with a very comprehensive set of instructions which are very instructive and good fun to read. The model is 72 inches in wingspan, with a high wing and looks a bit like a clipped wing Cub. It can be built as a tail dragger, or trike. This one is a tail dragger. It is very definitely a kit which is going to take some time to build though my friend, who has plenty of time on his hands, managed to complete it and fly it in about three weeks.

It calls for a 40 to 46 two stroke or 50 to 60 four stroke. My mate put an ASP 61 four stroke in it as these are very cost effective and he already has had good experiences with one. It is more than enough for the plane. They are available cheaply from a certain Hong Kong based hobby shop for about $115 - very reasonable for a four stroke 61.

The model is covered in Solatex (available from Balsa USA). It is an iron on cloth covering which is pre-painted. The model is pale blue on top and a cream underneath, very suitable for a "Golden Era" type model. Solatex is not cheap but it is extremely easy to apply, very long lasting and tough. My old Kadet Senior is now about 10 years old and is covered in it. Great for scale models and models you intend to keep for a long time.

First flight was a complete non event. He initially tried to test fly it with a brand new engine but the engine really needed some running in so we swapped the new engine for an older one which was a known quantity. With the engine quietly puttering he pointed the model into the wind, gradually increased the power and she floated off very smartly. Some down trim was called for (very typical of flat bottomed wings) and a couple of clicks of aileron trim had it flying hands off. It flies gently and slowly and is a great trainer for people wanting to build scale models as it has many of the flying characteristics of scale models. It is capable of gentle aerobatics but is not a real aerobatic model by any means.

My mate is absolutely delighted with his new model and I suspect it will be getting a lot of airtime. If you are in the market for something to learn how to build AND a very nice flying model to boot, you could do a lot worse than have a look at Balsa USA's Student Trainer.

I am in Australia and have nothing to do with Balsa USA apart from having built a couple of their models. From time to time they have been available here but at the moment this particular model is not so my friend bought it direct from BUSA. He was very pleased with the reasonable international freight charge (about $70) AND the very fast delivery time. It was here in about a week. Well done US Post Office.

Cheers

Mike in Oz

Hi Mike, I have been waiting for someone to mention this kit for a while. So far I haven't built one for anyone yet but it looked like a great teaching aid for anyone wanting to start building. It has some of the main building techniques installed so the new builder would have a better understanding of each method so they can move onto bigger and better things. It's been a while sense I have had anyone ask me to teach them to build a kit but I would really like to build one of these planes with someone. Knowing the flight is good also helps. It looks like a good trainer to me but to date I still haven't seen one at the field. Not a surprise, I'm the only builder left at the places I fly but I sure like the idea behind this kit. Thanks for the report.

I've been working on a review of this kit, but I got sidetracked by real world stuff like a job!!! <div>
</div><div>So far I would say that this is kit is perfectly suited for teaching somebody how to build. If a non-builder were to purchase this kit, and then follow the instructions included with the kit (4 HUGE volumes with over 600 pictures) they would indeed learn to build an airplane. They cover everything from setting up your building bench all the way to covering the airplane. BUSA really filled a need in the industry with this kit.</div><div>
</div><div>Now that I've got the job stuff over with (long story) I'm hoping to getting back to finishing the review on this plane/kit.</div><div>
</div><div>Ken</div>

G'day gents. Like you I am a rare breed at my club but recently a couple of my mates have taken an interest in building. One is the bloke that built this kit and the second has also bought the same kit. He calls it his "Diploma Course". We are some of the more senior members of the club it I think our building activities are interesting some others.

I was very pleasantly surprised by the flight performance of the model. As it looks a bit like a Cub, I was concerned it may suffer from adverse yaw but it is not badly affected. It flies really well. The little ASP 61 four stroke really suited it well. It has more dihedral than a Cub and I think this helps its flight stability.

I look forward to seeing Ken's review

Cheers,

Mike in Oz

Hi all,

I am the gentleman to whom Mike109 refers. My backgound is that I started RC flying way back in 1987 and built two high wing trainers from kits. But after a few months, family things got in the way so I gave it up. Got back into it in a big way two years ago but only ARFs however I did manage to get plenty of [re] building experience through a multitude of crashes. Having time on my hands and being a born tinkerer and having a creative bent, I decided to start building my own aircraft. Besides, I was less that satisfied with build quality and commercial covering on most ARFs. I bought a Balsa USA (BUSA) quarter scale Sopwith Pup from a guy who had built the frame but not done the covering. I sent to BUSA for solartex and a scale vickers machine gun kit and with them received their glossy full colour catelogue. Lo and behold, in those pages I found what I thought was just a very pretty aeroplane, the Student Trainer. I did learn quite a few skills, tricks and shortcuts during the build but with my previous building experience I also added some small modifications of my own. The kit was fantastic. The parts fit was nearly perfect, the instructions are simply brilliant (an inexperienced builder will learn heaps and gain the confidence to build other aircraft) and there are several options which are all covered in the manuals. These options include electric or IC, taildragger or trike (or even a convertable) etc.

But of course the most pleasing thing is the way it flies. Mike has already described the maiden flight. Today I took it out for three more flights just to confirm in my mind that the maiden hadn't just been a fluke. It wasn't. I have owned and flown Cubs, Kadet Seniors and Telemasters. This one takes all the best parts out of all of these and combines them into one package. If you want a floater, this is it. If you want a 1930's style high wing cabin, this is it. If you want a plane to practice landings with, this is it. If you want a sports flyer to just putt around the sky then this is it.

In case you were still wondering, yes I absolutely love this plane and Mike109 is right, it is going to get a lot of air time.

Cheers

Nice looking airplane. The color scheme really looks the part, too!

Well hello Adverse Yaw, please allow me to welcome you to the forum and your new ship is beautiful.

I have also been watching for this ship to no avail and interested to see if its something I can reccommed to folks and thank you Mike for the thread and report.

Curious that for something that's pretty close to our backyard out here in the west that we get our first reports from half way around the world

Thanks guys for the compliments. As I say, she is what I consider to be a "very pretty aeroplane". She kinda has an old timer / scale 1930's style hence the colour scheme I chose. I did consider doing her in olive drab and styling her like an American warbird which if I get the chance, I'll get another and do that. Thats the beauty of this kit, as you are building it, they give you lots of opportunity to personalise it to your taste eg: the size and shape of the cockpit windows which you have to cut out yourself. As I say, I will buy another one and make it into a warbird and will add lots of semi scale details such as wing struts, cockpit detailing, opening side doors etc. Now if I can just get my other projects finished.

Or perhaps a couple of underwing tubs with a pair of .35AX's in those nifty cowls for a great twin


John

Mike mentioned earlier that the manuals (yes there are four volumes) make entertaining reading. Some comments in them are down right hilarious. For example, when building the wing halves, you start with the right wing. When finished, they direct you to start on the left. Be sure to build a left wing and not another right wing. If however you stuff it up and build two right wings, you are directed to contact Balsa USA and they'll send you details of how to make this plane into a bipe. Now that would be interesting.

Indeed the whole two lefts or two right wings scenario once in the dim past the most common mistake in modeling history Ya just don,t hear it to often anymore in the 'ARF' age

John

So, if you make a mistake on the second set of wings, then you consider a triplane?

I think sometimes that the manufacture tries hard to make it entertaining as well as good reading to encourage people to have a success model for flight. I used to remember the cartoon drawing that shows someone having assembled a racing car when it was intended to be a fighter plane with the caption, It sometimes helps to read the instructions!

It was very refreshing to have instructions that made sense. Most of us are now pretty conversant with Chinglish but these instructions are written in such a manner that it sounds just like one of your friends talking to you. And just about every step is accompanied by a photo which is referred to in the text. Here are just a couple of classic quotes from the Balsa USA Student Trainer manuals:

"If there's trouble fix it now. The building fairy isn't likely to show up and do it for you (she's too busy helping the Chinese make ARFs)"

"Unpin the wing panel. STOP!! Don't just start yanking out the pins"

"You should now have two wing panels, one left and one right. That is what you have, right?"

"Locate the twenty 1/16x1-11/32x3-1/2 shear webs. Because we're the friendly model airplane company, we included two extra shear webs just in case they're needed."

You don't get instruction like that in your Chinese ARFs<br type="_moz" />