I think RCKen summoned it up best when he said we all want instant gratification. We all want to show that we are no longer a lowly student that flies a trainer around the field that we think can only do take offs and landings and if we really push it hard it might be able to do a loop so we all try and get a second plane as soon as possible (I include myself as one of these people).

I also see a lot of statements made that since I soled on the first (second third, etc) day of flying I must be a great pilot and thus I can handle the hottest and greatest plane out there. I really do not believe this is true. This just means that you have been able to overcome some of the things that most beginners battle with such as orientation and nerves. Just because you soled fast and the person next to you took a couple more flights does not mean you are the better pilot of the two, it may just mean that you played more games on your computer that taught you better orientation. Flight time is flight time and can not be replaced.

Your second plane is normally the plane that you will start pushing the envelope of your abilities and thus must be a something that you can both improve your basic abilities such as landing and your more advanced abilities such as doing aerobatics that really require the bigger control surfaces and throws of a second aircraft. It should ideally be able to do this without having any of the nasty habits of a advanced aircraft. I chose a H9 Pulse XT but there are many others that have been mentioned already.

I personally feel that a third aircraft is where you start to decide if you want to take a specific route in RC e.g. IMAC, scale, patern, pylon etc, and trying to advance to this aircraft to early will not allow you to personally make a decision if you want to take a specific direction as you will most probably be coerced into buying a certain style of aircraft so that you can advance in a certain direction.

There is however one good positive thing (at least for me) to getting your second plane as early as possible: which ever plane you fly you will always feel more positive and be able to fly harder when you know that you have a spare/backup plane.

Cheers
Pupmeister

Are you sure 1 spares enough ? lol

Ken,

Just curious why the H9 Ultra Stick series of airplanes is not on your "second plane" list? Do you think it has any bad habits? Thanks..

love my H9 ultra stick 60. it has all the great tributes of a "stick'' (they are a clasic for a reason) and the added benifits of very low wing loading with oversized control surfaces. do a search on RCU for all the recomended easy mods to make it purrrrrfect[8D]

Can you ever have enough?

Not if Murphy shows up. After smucking 2 , I pack up and head for a long neck or 2 and let Murphy have at it. I`ll come back and kick his tail , an other day. lol