Hey There,

Just thought I would share my experience so that any new beginners won't make the same mistake.

I recently purchased a Hobbico Aero Cruiser ([link=http://www.hobbico.com/airplanes/hcaa2004.jpg]Picture of the Cruiser[/link])and set out to fly my first rc plane. All I can say is crap. After crashing it after the 3 launch, I had to order new parts and mod (bigger motor, lost some weight) the plane in order for it to actually fly.

After receiving the part and getting everything in working order, I took it out again. This time, it actually flew. Although very unstable, it did fly to the point I had to put it down to recharge the battery. After a recharge, I take it back up and away I go. 2 minutes later, I'm back to square one - the plane takes a sudden and abrupt nose dive and never recovers. It broke in the exact same place as before.

So, I set out to find another hobby shop in my area and stumble onto AJ Hobby (www.ajhobby). After talking the Jack I purchased the GWS Beaver ([link=http://www2.gpmd.com/image/g/gwsa1024.jpg]Picture of the Beaver[/link]). I Spent a few hours on Saturday putting it together and decided the Sunday would be flight day. Well, let me just say this plane is great. I had it in the air and flying in just the 2 launch (first was my fault... little too high). The plane is stable, controllable and can take a fair amount of wind considering it's weight.

All in all, a great little trainer.

Welcome CanadianFlyer,
If you are still interested in flying gas, I would recommend one of the Sig kits
such as the Kadet Senior for .40 or the Seniorita for .25. A kit and a bottle of Zap glue and a bit of work every night and you will be rewarded for your effort .

I bought an aerocruiser (crappy cruiser) to teach my son how to fly. The Crappy Cruiser loves to nose dive to the ground. The receiver and engine battery pack that comes with the plane is too heavy. I spent over $50 for a lithium polymer battery and charger to reduce the weight. The plane will now fly, but not very good. I then spent over $50 on smaller servos to reduce more weight. The Crappy Cruiser flies no better with smaller servos than it did with the larger servos that come with it. Now with a lighter battery and smaller servos it flies like it is tail heavy, but when I added weight to the nose it was back to the nose diving into the ground. I removed the added weight and I can fly the plane, but you have to be careful because it is very unstable. I finally told my son yesterday, 03/06/2005, that we will get something else to teach him to fly on and when he can fly then he can try to fly the Crappy Cruiser. It is too beat up to return now so we are stuck with it and i am out almost $300. My Ultimate Bipe is easier to fly and would make a better trainer than the Crappy Cruiser. DON'T BUY THE AEROCRUISER! [&o]

A lot of new flyers get fooled into thinking that the Aerocruiser is a cheap way to get into the hobby. In this case the flyability and fun factor match the price. []

had same problem with plane after charginging battery to full charge it flew great until landed in neighbor's tree 2 days rain it landed on ground a pile of strophone. will put gear into another bi plane from ama mag. put onto cub plans from sig. hope it makes easy trainer have 2 foam wings from previous plane not the aeriocruiser

Aerocrusher is an electric powered model correct? And, the battery pack your flying with, is it nimh battery? Reason I ask is....
new nimh packs should be cycled about 5 times before they get up to the performance and duration level. All new battery packs
should be charged the 1st time at 1/10 C to set up the cells and then cycled 5 or 6 times. Example....you have a new GP 1100
battery pack. Initial charge should be at 110 milliamps or lower (use a wall wart charger to do this unless you have one of the newer
chargers). I charge all my new battery packs with a futaba and hitec wall wart charger. The output is 55 milliamps at 9.6 volts.
I learned the hard way along time ago...had a hitec sky scooter...bought a new 1600 nimh pack. Charged it and tried to fly plane.
Underpowered and it crashed busting the nose off and bending the motor shaft.

Dave...

I had alot of fun with the aerocruiser. I taught myself how to fly with it. Granted, it doens't take a crash very well, but I thought it flew great.

well I have news for you. I flew my friends Cruiser on its first flights and it did much better than i expected as a straight drive motor. that said ,if you do not cycle packs , fly on windy days you may have some trouble . as is it did ok and he' is doing fine with model #2 (model 1 eventually ended up with student-misjudged landing beyond repair.