Hi I have never built "compleated" a plane and only flew a cheep walmart plane for about 2 minutes untill it hit a tree and died.Are there any other planes that are good for beginers other than trainers? I just dont like the way they look and would rather spend my monney and time on somthing i like better

Piper J3 Cub. The only thing bad abou that plane is it doesn't have a trike landing gear, its a tail dragger and thats not really ideal for a beginner like yourself. Theres nothing wrong with trainers, everyone learned on them from one time to another. But I'm telling you now, trainers are the way to go for just learning.

Almost any "Stick" type (Ugly Stick, Super Stick... they all look the same) if you reduce the control throws a bit, and balance it a bit (1/2 inch) forward.

The Sig Four Stars make decent trainers. Again, reduce control throw a bit and balance a little forward.

there's really a very large selection of good planes for use as trainers...

If the wing is still good/repairable from the old trainer... you can make a fuselage that looks a lot like a F-14 for it... Very neat looking plane called the "TameCat" which is unfortunately discontinued... I've got one and it draws the kids QUICK! I could come up with drawings for it... E-mail me if you want. I'll need the rib shape from the trainer. (if not flat bottom) and the span and chord.

I understand traoners are most likly the best way to go I just love scale planes and would love to learn on a plane that looks verry scale lights and all and one that wont look ugly hanging from my livingroom LOL As I posted before I just do not like the looks of trainers what about a cesna? <----spelling" They have trike gears right? and they have high wings wich makes them more stable right? sorry if i sound dumb but I am a newby

Cessnas make fine trainers.

The Great Planes .40 size ARF Cessna 182 is being used by a student in our club. He's got a TT .46 Pro on it. Initially, the plane had a bad tip-stall characteristic, but by turning the clevices on both ailerons out, pushing the ailerons upward a little, that bad habit went away. You can't see the amount we moved the ailerons... just one turn was enough.

Don't forget you are going to crash the next one too, and probably the one after that, and the next....

Sometimes its nice to have an ugly plane to practice with, its easier to relax when you're not so attached to it...and after a few flights whatever you build might not look so good after all, hanging on the ceiling or wherever.

The real joy of RC is in the flying, put together a butt-ugly plane that flies well and I bet you will come to like it a lot more than you thought possible.

Yeh I see what you rte saying maby I should invest in an ugly old trainer besides you are corect I most likly will crack it up pretty fast. Can anyone recomend one to me? I would like to buy a bare bone kit and build it up myself. Or would you recomend I get an ARF? I do have expearence in building little wood ruber band power planes and I curently am building up a kit of a 1/2A CAP 21 and just love the thought of building it from scrach

Scratch building is really the long way around if you want to have a reasonable ratio of flight time to construction/repair/reruild time. A Tower Trainer or equivalent is available not only in ARF but also in kit form, a fancy covering job can make these look fairly respectable. The Duraplanes, etc. are tough and fun to fly, but you won't get much conventional kit building experience from these.

Jason.... Dynaflight used to make a Cessna Trainer .40, you could consider that (if you want one and can't find it -- it is out of production -- let me know). It's a kit... were you planning to build your own plane?

You know if you're cracking up trainers pretty fast, it may be that your current instructor doesn't really know what he's doing... I'd highly suggest getting a new one.

Now, if you're planning to build your plane, you can always make a generic trainer look like something else by "kit bashing"... take any shoulder wing trainer, raise the wing a couple of inches (being careful to not change the wing's incidence angle), add a turtle deck if needed, reshape the tail (being careful not to change any angles or areas) and you can create all kinds of scale planes and still be assured that it'll fly like a trainer. With the rubber powered planes you've already built, I'd recommend a kit bashing project just to get familiar with tdesign and building practices for an r/c sized plane, then you should be ready for scratch building. At that point, the Ugly Stik is a great first scratch building project.

The wing makes the trainer. As long as you don't alter the wing, (and its alignment to the tail surfaces) you can almost reshape the fuselage at will.

Start with a basic Tower Trainer 40 or equivilent. Chop the upper fuselage down to make it shoulder wing. Don't join the back end of the fuselage, make wider formers to keep the same width all the way back. Now cut 2 inch thick foam profilew from the wing LE to back of the fuselage. BNevel the front of those profiles top to bottom at 45 deg, to simulate a jet intake. Make two 60% size rudders and fins and chop the horizontal stab in half. Cut a 1/4 inch slot in the stab halves for a spruce spar on the 25% MAC line ( about 25% of the stab area forward, and 75% aft of the line close is good enough.) the same distance from the back of the plane, as fronm the back of the stab, cut a slot for the spruce 1/4 square stock. Get 1 1/4 inch TE stock and make a new elevator full width. The fins will mount on the edges of the fuselage, where the stab halves meet it. Add canopy and you now have a sorta F-14.

go with a balsa usa stick, then a sig mid star, or usa stingray
after that a sig 440 or a usa thunderbug.


good luck

If you are into scratchbuilding, and want to do it dirt cheap, and want a plane you can beat up and don't mind being a little unconventional, cheack out http://www.spadtothebone.com
But I can tell you they certianly won't win any beauty contests...at least the trainer wont...but you can have a blast, and get real good at flying before putting a lot of money and time into something else...that you will then have the confidence to fly!