Moved up from the Nexstar


Hi all,

I just wanted to get your opinions on something. I just crashed my Nexstar into a tree at my flying field. I am not going to blame it on anything but my own stupidity I was flying in low light at the end of the day. Anyway, I did just a little leading edge damage and need to repair it. In the meantime, I had a ready to go Nitromodel Low wing trainer I bought in anticipation of moving up. I decided to give it a try buddy boxed with the chief instructor from my club. OMG!!! The thing was soooooo much easier to fly than my original Nexstar trainer I can’t even express to you the difference. This thing handled like it was on rails and it landed so beautifully and came down EXACLY when and where I wanted to put it every time. Now my question is this. Why do a lot of guys always seem to discourage newer pilots from moving up? I am still far from doing precision acrobatics but this airplane will at least give me a real nice platform for learning. I can do roles, loops, and stall turns with the nextstar but could never do a knife edge or keep it inverted (safely) for long. With the low wing trainer I was able to do all of these on my 4th flight up with it. Granted they where sloppy but easily accomplished. Now don’t misinterpret the tone of this message. I am not saying anyone is wrong or anything like that. I just want to know if I am a strange case or if I was just ready to move up and didn’t really know it until I tried? My point is starting to do aerobatics in a nNexstar not only seems like the hard way but down right dangerous to everyone around you. It was like trying to make high speed hairpin turns in a tractor trailer.

Thx

HEY JOEY, IWENT FROM A NEXSTAR TO A WORLD MODELS MACH 2 LOW WING IT IS STILL STABLE AND WILL DO MOST ACROBATICS A VERY FUN PLANE TO FLY AND AT AROUND 80,00 DOLLARS NOT TO MUCH IT FLYS GREAT WITH THE OS ENGINE THAT CAME WITH YOUR NEXSTAR. I ALSO GOT A NEW RADIO WENT WITH A FUTBA 9 CH ANY MORE INFO LET ME KNOW.....

Your going to get a lot of different opions , but it`s really up to you and how you feel about it. If you can handle take offs and landings well and feel your pertty familar with the stics , then fly a few more times with your instructor and ask him what he thinks.

I don't discourage anyone from moving up. I do discourage them from moving up TOO SOON. Everyone is different and a stable high wing trainer is ALWAYS going to be more forgiving of human error, up to a point. You have merely gone the next step, a low wing trainer. You won't believe what's still waiting for you out there if you think THIS is an upgrade. There is a reason the Nexstar doesn't do a decent knife edge in stock configuration - it's not supposed to. That's NOT what it was designed for. It WILL fly inverted quite well though, once you learn how. Apparently a skill you rushed past. Anyone (almost) can make an aerobatic plane fly inverted, it takes a bit of skill with a plane like a Nexstar. Stay with the low-wing if you wish but once you get the Nexstar fixed go back and learn the basics.

Agreed!!!

Ken

Hi all!
I started with RC airplanes in 1964 with a Glass City Pulse Proportional radio. Dozens of planes but non easer to fly than Astro-Hogs, How a plane is trimed makes the most differance.

oh by the way the picture of the mach 2 that you see was stole from me along with 8 other planes if you go to my gallery you can see al of the planes that was stolen from my house so please keep your eyes and ears open for me

My personal opinion is that a person should stick with a trainer until he has reached the point where flying is completely intuitive. In other words, you don't have any problem with the fact that your controls are reversed when the plane is coming at you, you know whether your plane is right side up or upside down, you know exactly what the plane is going to do when you move the stick. The problem with a low wing sport plane is that if you don't know how to do those things, you will have a lot less time to figure out what is going on because everything happens a little bit faster.

What, in all of your opinions, is the best low wing trainer on the the market today? I want to move up but im not exactly sure what model im looking for

Once the high wing is thoroughly understood I'd say that the Sig Four Star or Goldberg Tiger 2 would be good choices. Kits or ARFS are available in 40 and 60 sizes. The Sig is a taildragger and the Goldberg can be built either way with a bit of work.