This is refreshing, someone who is actually doing it the right way.

I also bought the Tower trainer ARF. It has a lot more assembly required than I expected, Ailerons rudder elevator, but feel better knowing that if any of these surfaces fail (depart) I am the one that messed up. I am usually a hardcore kit builder but for the price you can't buy a kit and the covering. This will be my second time entering this hobby after a 12 year break. My original trainer was a garbage bag case years ago. It was a Goldberg Eagle 2 and it was built too lite for my taste.

One thing that I noticed about the covering on the Tower trainer was not as tight as it should be. I noticed wrinkles on the ailerons and wing, and the red started to come off on the top of the wing.

Do yourself a favor and get you a sealing iron and a hot sock, and re-seal the whole structure. Use the hot sock to rub down the covering on the wooden surfaces after it is heated.

Stratotanker was asking which kit to build for a second? My second plane back then was the Sig Kavalier. (I quickly built one after my Eagle was buried). It is a shoulder wing plane, and very docile, a good choice for a second plane. One warning about Sig, they are Craftsman kits which means that they are a little harder to build than others, but with a little time and patience are very good flyers.

I meant to say hot glove. If you rub down the hot covering with your bare hand it gets rather uncomfortable.

Well the weekend has gone by and I still didn't get the chance to fly my Tower trainer.[&o] The club had a fly in so it was difficult to get anyone to take the time with so much activity going on. No biggy. Sunday was a wash with the weather. I was able to find a couple of guys willing to help me convert over to gas for free! The more I thought about the one guy wanting to charge me $75.00 for training just made me not want to use him even more. Anyway hopefully next weekend. I'll keep you posted.
chopper man

Hey Bruce, there's one in every crowd

Like I said I am also a kit builder, usually, but to pick up an ARF for $60.00, and the cheapest kit is $70.00, you get the point. I have been away from the hobby for over 10 years and feel it is more prudent to start back with a trainer rather than chancing a re-kit with my Kavalier. It is forgiving to a point but after flying the Art-tech Cessna, (electric) I realize that I am all the way back to square one. I am back up to the controlled crash. And I do miss the smell of Glow fuel at the flyin' field.

I "retired" from the hobby for a while too for various reasons. The good news is that the cob webs do blow off quickly and you will be back to your old self soon.

The weekend is here and the weather is questionable. I don't think I'm going to get the chance to fly. The guy that was going to help me was thinking about going to MS to loose some money so he may not be available as well. Guess I'll do the next best thing and go hunting. Hope you all have a good weekend flying.
chopper man

Saturday morning and it is way to windy Maybe next weekend. Maybe I'll get lucky and get that big 8 point that my brother and I have been hunting
chopper man

Some one actually asked to pay him to train you. That's a first for me. I had at least three members help me at our club field on various nights, standing beside me and making sure I did not get into any trouble. Rushed to get the third flight in that evening. If I was more patience a few weeks back I wouldn't have lost my avistar, but I had a tower trainer as a backup. Seems to fly not too bad, but it's late fall, it's getting cold and time to build for the spring. At least I have the TT40 for the start of the spring.

Jim,
That was the kicker having to pay $75.00. The more I pounder on it the more madder I got. I did find a couple of guys at the field that said they would be happy to help. FOR FREE. I've been flying the Easy Star without any problem but I don't want to take any chances moving over to gas. I want to keep this hobby fun[8D]
chopper man

I also have never heard of anyone asking for money to train them. If you see any more newbies out at the field, you can warn them off about him now. I have heard of people asking for money to repair a plane. That is one drawback to an ARF or RTF, it scares newbies away from trying to do otherwise simple repairs when they don't know how it was put together in the first place. I would also suspect that some would trash a mildly damaged plane being scared to open one up.

I also haven't been able to get my Trainer out to the field, windy, raining, dark. It's amazing, every time I go outside now I check the trees to see if it's windy, didn't pay much attention to them before. Oh well, there is always the flight simulator.

Most times, R/C clubs have plenty of qualified volunteers who will take time to teach new modelers how to fly, and that's fine. We must remember that it's not wrong for someone to charge for lessons, but you must consider the source, and whether the club actually permits it. Once the instructor starts charging, it becomes a "commercial" operation, and the modelers' and club's AMA insurance no longer applies. Very likely, even the liability portion of one's homeowner's insurance may not apply. Some flying fields are on public or publicly-owned property, and "for-hire" operations may not be permitted. You have to check these things out, especially if you're going to be charging someone to teach them.

There ARE people who regularly charge to give R/C flight lessons, and they will provide everything: plane, fuel, master and student transmitters, and so on. You may actually get very good value, here. Also, there are a few commercial operations around the country that are set up as R/C flight schools. While I have zero knowledge about their quality, I have seen ads. They may be something worth checking into.

All that being said, again, it's not wrong for someone to charge to give R/C flight lessons. If the person is a good instructor and you agree to the charges, who's hurt? Most clubs, though, have volunteers who are very willing to teach, and will do a good job, too. Don't put down the one who charges just because they charge.

All this from one who's never charged anyone they've taught to fly.

I had the great good fortune of being trained when I reentered as an adult by Terry Terrenoire and Bob Noll. Two superb pilots (and very patient men) who volunteer to train fledglings at a local club. These men have competed nationally and internationally and I probably could not have afforded such trainers if they wanted to go pro. I've since helped Terry train Explorer Scouts in building and flying since then as my "pay back" and try to be helpful here. I can see the sense of charging, I suppose, but I think the free exchange is better and part of why I love this pursuit.

First time you get a kit and find the wing leading edge and trailing edge are long rectangular or square cross-section "planks" you'll understand a little better. Or have to carve a cowl out of glued up balsa blocks. Or bend and solder landing gear from straight piano wire. Or find you have ordered a "builder''s kit" that has three plan sheets, but lacks any written instructions. Or sand . . . everything.

Got mine back from BanjoAirplane, havent repaired it yet, but yeah it is a good flyer...Rog

A guy just can't get a break. It's a nice day but again way to windy[:@] Maybe tomorrow. Once again I guess I'll go do the next best thing and go hunting.
chopper man

Hey Chopper Man, if you will notice, the wind usually dies down early in the morning, close to noon, and just before sunset. This may or may not be reassuring, but if you will watch the wind patterns it may give you a chance to schedule time to go to the field.

In normal conditions this is true. Unfortunately both weekends a strong coldfront came through the area. Didn't have a chance. Windy all day. I normally like to fly my Easystar early evenings because just like you said it is normally very calm.
Chopper man

Yeah, I never was into hunting so this time of the year I pull out the Tower catalogs and drool.[sm=tongue_smile.gif] With cold spells and the time change I haven't maidened mine either. I did get to check some old fuel that I had from 12 years ago. My ASP 46 fired right up but when it started to warm up it would die. That's no good![&o] I have some fuel that I bought 8 years ago that was never opened, and it runs great. Now all there is to do is hope for blue sky's and warm calm day.

I think this weekend is going to be fairly nice. So we'll see. Worst case I need to get back to finishing my TF Piper Arrow that I've been building for almost a year or go try to get that big 8 point. My wife is tired of the ping pong table being taken up. Just to many things going on and not enough time to do them.
chopper man

The Arrow looks like it should be a sweet flier. Don't build it too fast or you might be tempted to fly it before you are ready. Looking on Tower's web-site that might be hard to get used to from a trainer. Back when I got into the hobby, everyone was suggesting a shoulder-wing plane for a 2nd plane so I got the Sig Kavalier. It flies faster than a trainer, more responsive, but still forgiving. It is not as fast as a low wing though. I have noticed on here that some people are suggesting the Sig Something Extra as a 2nd so with some help the Arrow might make a good 2nd plane. If it wasn't for the expense. With the money you have tied up in that kit, you may want to hold out on that till a 3rd plane and slap a 4 stroke on it. Just my opinion

I would like to fly the Arrow at some point but I don't think I'll be ready to fly it after I become proficient with the Tower trainer. I have a lot of time any money tied up in it already and sure don't want to have a burning ceremony. I do like the idea of a four stroke.
chopper man

Well it finally happened[8D] Yesterday was beautiful. Finally got to fly The tower .40 trainer. It flew great although having the OS .40LA it seems to be a littled under powered. Thats ok as I don't need the speed while I'm making the transition to nitro. The actual flying part was no biggie but the landing was a different story. When flying the Easy Star if you mess up the approach you can just dump it without hurting the plane. These things with landing gears are a bit trickier. Hopefully I'll get the hang of it soon. The good thing was I suffered only a couple of broken props and also learned that wood props are not the way to go. All in all I had a great day of flying.

Ken

One thing that I wanted to mention to anyone that is new and following this thread is as the "takeoff is optionable but the landing is mandatory" as RCKen would say, an instructor or experience pilot is mandatory. Even with my experience with the Easy Star my Tower Trainer would have been rubble if it wasn't for having help. I'm glad I waited. I'll continue to get help until I'm comfortable with the takeoff and landings. To think that I was going to try to go it alone! A famous person once said "Stupid Hurts"
Chopper man

a good durable prop for a trainer is a master airscrew there pretty rubbery and wont splinter like some of the stiffer props like APC or your wood ones