I've been moving up the chain as follows:

Firebird Commander 2 (actual flight time approx 25 hours)
SkyFly (actual flight time approx 18 hours)

I'm getting bored with the SkyFly (the Commander 2 was donated to a friend to help get him in the hobby).

For my next plane I want to move into ailerons, but in RealFlight (which I've spent god-knows-how-many hours on...) all the aileron craft are hard to handle.

I loaded the Stryker C from the knife edge(?) swap forum, and the elevon system seems to be quite compatible with my current skill level at flying. Is this a good choice for a third plane?

Also, I have a Spektrum DX6, and I also have the receiver unit that came with it. How hard would it be to put that rx in the Stryker C?

I'm aware the Stryker C is VERY fast compared to the 2 planes above but I saw one flying at the field I go to, and the owner only had it at 33% throttle and it was gently lazily crossing the skies so I figure I can notch up speed over time as I become more accustomed to flying a delta wing.

Forget the flying wing thing. With a radio like that on the shelf, I'd go with a .40 glow powered trainer no doubt about it. You'd have ailerons, but it's as tame as you want it to be. As you progress, like me, I've started doing some aerobatics. With some stick time you can get a brushless park flier too, or whatever.

There's lots of trainers to choose from and lots of advice has been given on these forums to choose the proper one.

If you are finding the G3 aileron craft hard to handle, get a trainer not a Delta Wing.

Practice with the PT-40 or the Nexstar in G3.

Get that down first.


Then move up to the real world trainer ( preferably at a club. ).

The real thing will be more difficult that the simulator for many reasons.

Not that G3 is inaccurate ( though it's ground handling is far too forgiving ), but at the field/in the air/ you have many things to deal with at once... something the sim does not duplicate well.

Once you have attended a club training session you and your instructor will be better able to predict your speed of progress.

You can then make a great purchasing decision.

The stryker can be a docile flyer and I know people who learned on it. It is very easy to land. However, as you pointed out, if you get into the throttle or horse it around too much and it will get away from you. It will eventually get away from you anyway if you fly it fast and low like we all like to. The up side is it is cheap and easy to repair. There are electric high wing trainers available if you don't want to mess with glow stuff. It all depends on where you want to go with it. The DX6 is only suited to parkflyers and small electrics. This one: http://www.horizonhobby.com/Products...ProdID=EFL2250 is good as well and suited to your radio. 5 min epoxy does not go as far on the ultra stick as it does on a foamie for repairs, though.

I'd do some more cheking on the radio before trying to use it on a glow powered plane. The DX6 is for Park Flyers which means that it has limited range. Thats a bad thing when you get into faster moving glow planes that can cover longer distances in short order. To be safe you should look at the DX7 radio which is rated for glow airplanes. [8D]

Have you flown the Slinger at all on G3? That's a really terrific flying wing and the ARF is only $49 with brushed engine.

Good call.

The required components to complete are relatively inexpensive, yet it's still a very fun plane.

Hehe, thanks opjose! Only now I'm wondering why I don't own a Slinger yet? Where's that shopping list of mine...

Yes actually I've spent 5 hours worth of training time on the slinger (it's what I figured was the closest thing to the Stryker in RealFlight).

For the folks recommending glow planes: I'm not looking to move up to a glow plane for at least another 6 months or so (if at all possible I want to stick to electric), mostly because I can't fly them in the park near my house (park flyers, and electric planes can be flown with few restrictions....I love Tucson sometimes) and I don't own a truck to haul one of them around properly (foam is far more forgiving of being stored on my backseat than balsa would be, especially in this heat).

The primary reason I'm going for a delta wing is to teach myself orientation on a hard-to-identify object so regular planes become an easy task. I'm not new to flying RC aircraft, but I AM new to powered RC flight. I'm familiar with the concepts of flight intimately (I am a pilot).

The secondary reason I'm looking at the delta wing aircraft is to learn aileron usage (yes I know they're called elevons on deltas) in a plane that is much more forgiving than an actual aileron-equipped, full-4-channel plane. As I've mentioned previously the aileron-equipped planes in RealFlight are a bit beyond my handling skill currently. (And before anyone asks yes I tried the PT40 in there)

Thanks for the tip about the Slinger, for some wierd reason I thought it was just one of those concept planes in RealFlight and not an actual model. I'll look into it (I'm a newbie at building, so it might be a good opportunity for me to get some more build time under my belt) but crashing balsa (?) airplanes scares me.

Opjose: I'm a member of a club here, I just haven't run into any people at the field I go to yet (hard to believe, but I guess it's been windy lately....no problem for a glider pilot like myself I just take the opportunity to thermal-surf with the SkyFly..I fly that plane in all sorts of conditions seasoned folk would be scratching their heads at: rain, 20mph wind....giving myself challenges)

[link=http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXDSC1&P=ML]Great Planes Slinger at Tower Hobbies[/link]

There really isn't any building to be done with the Slinger, it comes out of the box pretty much ready for radio installation. You'll need to install your own servos, battery, and electronic speed controller (ESC) to outfit the plane, but then it's pretty well ready to go.

They fly fast or slow quite nicely. I still don't know why I haven't bought one of these yet. [X(]