Flew my SE for the first time this weekend. Weather was clear and hot here in Morgan Hill, Ca. The SE is sort of my second plane. 1st plane is a kadet senior and briefly I flew a 4 *. Basically made only two significant mistakes with the SE this weekend, but fortunately I was 1 1/2 mistakes high each time. A little too close for comfort. First I got out a little too far, little too high, lost orientation and ended up inverted losing altitude. Didn't panic and sorted it out. The second mistake was intentionally going inverted and then again losing too much altitude. This was a little closer, but again I did not panic and was able to sort it out.
I've flown the kadet for about a year and find the SE really quick requiring careful use of controls. The SE is set with low rates per manual, 40 % expo and a OS 50SX for power. CG is a tad under the recommended 3 1/2 inch setting. I want to emphasize how quick the SE is to control input. Use gentle small travel inputs on the control at least initially.
I would say the biggest thing to learn on either the 4 * or SE is that turning with ailerons will require substantial use of the elevator. Most trainers you can turn with ailerons only. This is quite different from a symmetrical or semi symmetrical winged plane. They will require a lot of elevator to actually accomplish the turn. I crashed the 4 * on landing one time by attempting a low altitude turn with only aileron. Basically it just banked, lost altitude, hit the wing on the ground and then cart wheeled.
Both planes are easy to take off and land with no bad habits. Neither plane has any tendency to nose over or ground loop on asphalt runway.
The SE is a handful, but seems like it would be ok for a 2nd plane. I think most beginners should consider having someone with more experience maiden the plane and then use a buddy box for their first few flight until they are comfortable with the SE. I did OK by myself, but it was pretty close.

Hey dz06
I maidened my SE this last saturday also, It sure was a blast to flydo you have any pictures of your plane. Here are a few of mine...By the way can you guess what state I am in??

My guess would be you're in Oklahoma.
My SE is an ARF. I don't have any pictures.
By the way in the Airforce this problem was refered to as a short between the headsets. You had to be careful of the squawk sign off as some pilots were sensitive to this even if there really was one.
How was your maiden flight?

Hey danny,
Is that a real live zebra, abit off topic but it looks pretty real with the food bowl.
Paul

danny03,
That is one sweet covering job. I was actually thinking of covering mine in Maroon and White with Gig'em Aggies across the wings. BTW, Perkins 3 punt return TD's this weekend was UNBELIEVABLE!!

I have one myself and still love it after 2 years and a close encounter with a tree. If it's too much of a hand-full, just lessen the throws on all the surfaces. I started out with recommended throws, found it too twitchy, and reduced them. As I got used to it, I increased the throws and use my high-low rate switch all the time. Impossible to land on high rates--even at very low landing speed the elevator will balloon it up if you aren't careful. Nose-high landings really slow are a blast!..Enjoy it

No, that is not a real zebra, I have enough to feed with 4 dogs and a cat. That Zebra came through our used furniture store one day and the wife decided to hang on to it.


dz06
your right about some pilots being sensitive, especially the newbies. We usually got along great with the older pilots and sometimes they would allow the newbies to make these mistakes just to what would happen... My maiden flight took off without a hitch, a little down trim and that baby was flying straight and true, I have since put 10 more flights on her and everytime I take her up I just get all excited again..[sm=sunsmiley.gif]

BalsaCrusher

Thanks for the compliments, especially since it is my first covering job. There is one thing that I would change and that would be to add some lighter color on the LE, whenever she gets below the tree line on final that red is very very hard to see. I lost visual a couple of times and I believe that the only reason that I did not crash was that I had applied throttle and gently pulled back on the stick...Real Scary...