I will have my first chance to fly my avistar this weekend. It is going to be my first time in the air. I will have someone therewith me who is experienced. I am just wondering if any of you have had any problems with this plane? I would kind of like to have an idea of how this plane is going to treat me.

Bravo!! [sm=thumbup.gif][sm=thumbup.gif]

I got an Avistar for my return to RC flying after 15 years away from it, and you're going to enjoy the airplane - it has no bad habits, which makes it a great first airplane (If you haven't already, do a search on RCU for AVISTAR and read what others say - universally positive.

You have probably thought about this, but I suggest your friend fly the airplane until it is set up and trimmed properly, then give you the transmitter with enough altitude so he can rescue it from any "student induced" danger .

I also suggest he take off and land for the first several flights until you can control the airplane in low passes close to the ground, then you will have the skills to land. Takeoffs are easier than landings, so you should be able to make them sooner

Let us know how it goes!!!

Cheers!

Jim

I have almost 30 flights on my two week old Avistar and love it. Easy and a blast to fly!!! Enjoy it!!!!

Good Luck, Kurt
__________
Avistar .40 FX
Something Extra - in the mail
P-51 GP kit in the box

The Avistar was also my first plane. It is a great flyer! The only thing I would mention about the Avistar is it can be a bit tricky to fly in wind but other than that it's a great airplane.

Good Luck!

Ditto on the Avistar as a first plane. Have had my first one for almost 3 years and many, many flights. I crashed it just before Christmas 2002 and bought myself another one as a present to me. Rebuilt the first one and it flies just fine. Both planes have performed great. They are a little tricky in the wind and if there is one thing you will learn with this plane if you build it with all the supplied hardware, will be to land properly. The landing gear can be a bit springy and make good and sure that the planes stance is either level or a little nose down when sitting on the ground. Otherwise, it may have a tendancey to jump back in the air on a not so crisp landing. All in all, after seeing all the trainers out there, (both new and old), you won't be dissapointed in the way the Avistar handles. Can be very gentle when first learning but can do some moderately impressive stuff with higher rates.

Just get out and enjoy it....

T.

Best thing to have is a buddy-box. Even with an experienced instructor, the time it takes to hand over the radio can reduce the save-window.

Also, the Avistar will bounce on anything but greased landings. I've had many landings I thought were going good turn into a porpoise impersonation.

The nose gear may get bent back slightly from rougher landings, and the main gear may spread out. Just bend it back. I also put a smaller nose wheel on to get it a bit more level on the ground.

I ran into my first problem with it last month when the seal on the tank decided to fail. Make sure you check the screw on the tank cap and that it's sealed properly.

With that said, the Avistar is a great plane. I have well over 120 flights on mine. It's still a lot of fun.

Good luck!

Ditto on what a great plane it is. One thing I did was trash the suplied tires and got some good Dubro tires. It makes landing a little less bouncy. Balance it from front to back and from side to side. If its perfectly balanced, it will fly super sweet. I had the OS .46AX on mine. I was even getting it to hover some, and rolling while doing it. If you have an instructor you can't go wrong with this plane. With the large engine, its very easy to recover from stalls. But to make it easier than what I had, I did not want to take time to move the batteries to balance and just added weight. It worked well, but with the extra two ounces I added too the tail, it made it need to be landed just a tad faster than normal. But I love bringing it in at about 30mph and just trying not to bounce it on touch down.

I will second this comment. The same thing happened to my Avistar's tank last week after about 100 or so flights. Check that rubber stopper for tightness. It seems fairly hard and if you can't get it tight it will need to be replaced. The Avistar is a great first AND second plane in one if you have an instructor.

P-51 killer. Go for it. The Avistar is a awsome plane. I taught myself to fly on that plane and it is still in my hangar today almost a year later. The Avistar is great.

Couldn't agree more with everyone above. I have two of them myself, both with 46FX's and one is a taildragger. They are a lot of fun, just make sure to glass the center of the wing for more strength for when you start to do the more "harsher" part of flight training (high speed loops, turns, etc.) You'll be glad you did...

I learned to fly on an old 3 channel kadet. Now that I am switching to a new plane, using my left hand is causing me issues. My son wants to learn how to fly, but I want him to learn on a 4 channel so that he doesn't have the same problems I have. I am debating between an LT-40 or an Avistar. Which do you recommend?
Thanks,
Jeff

Either plane will be very good. I learned on an Avistar. The Avistar has a semi-symmetric wing that makes it better for aerobatics after he learns the basics. The LT-40 is larger and will need a larger engine. My Avistar had a LA40 on it and it was fine. A friend had a LA46 on his LT-40 and replaced it with a FX-46 and liked it a lot better. If your son progresses quickly, like a lot of video game generation kids can, I would recommend the Avistar since it is can be both a first and second plane in terms of the skills learned. I went from the Avistar to a Super Sportster and felt prepared very well. I flew the Avistar for two seasons and never really got bored just maxed the throws and moved the CG back some. As a pure trainer I would recommend the LT-40.

What do you think about putting an OS 46ax on the avistar? Will that be too much power?
Thanks,
JEff

nope, just about perfect! basically anything inbetween a .40 LA and a .53 will fly an avistar fine. just check the balance with the .46 up front, with my little .40la it balanced well, and I was able to run 2 ounce of weight on the tail for the best flat spins of ANY plane I have ever owned!

The Avistar is a good stable plane and fairly acrobatic too.

It really holds on to its energy (like a P-51). When you land you must learn to throttle down before you make that last turn before final approach or you come in too fast. If you don't, then you get the famous Avistar bounce.

This was a noticable difference when I went to flying a SPAD. That thing blows E like crazy.