Well i have been flying at my field for about 2 years. and a while back this little kid came out with a really really cheap electric trainer. he didnt have a clue how to fly but he was just the best kid i have ever been arround. so i decided to help him get his plane in the air. got it up and what do ya know. flys as bad as it looks. i get it high and level and give hime the sticks i stand behind him incase he got in trouble. but he seemed to be handeling it really well. he was having trouble with holding the rudder full right or left. never centered. but i got confident enough that he had it so i walked over to the pits to help an older gentlemen cary his plane out to the runway and just as i pick up the plane. i see thislittle kids plane go in, broke the wing in half but that seemd to be all. so! i pull out 2 push rods and some packing tape and fixed his wing. balanced it and he crashed it agian but this time he couldnt find this little plane out in the tall weeds. we look for about a good 30mins-hour. and nothing. so the kid had to go home with nothing. lets just say i felt horible! i had given him a card with my number on it befor ehe left and about 3 days ago i got a call from his mother thinking me for all the help i gave her son. and that hes saving all his money to buy a new one. 3 weeks he has 15 bucks... i dont want him to waste his money and buy another tiny trainer with no alerons. and i persoanlly know nothing about elecrics besides the fast that i dont like them (no offense) but i dont think he can afford a nitro fuel and i want it to be safe. he was only 9, you guys got any ideas for a good SIMPLE cheap electric trainer? i have a radio he can have so he wont need to buy another one. his parents car is rather small to so no biger than a 40? idk what the sizes are in electric probally a little smaller than a 40 size trainer.
thanks for any sugestions,donations.
richard

Pity for the small kid, will the e-starter from GWS solve hisproblem ? I guess its cheaper and got all 4 channel also easy to fly for beginner.

is it possible the club you fly at/with has a club trainer that he could get some buddy box time on witha 40 size trainer? this way he can get some flying in.

id also suggest his father/mother come along to so they might get an interest in it as well. or so they can see that their son is sincerely interested in the hobby. they might take the first step and help him purchase a trainer/setup this would benefit both the parents and the son. might be a cool hobby "addiction" for the father/son team to pick up [8D]

thats how i got into the hobby, me and my dad purchased a plane 10 yrs ago and built it together, and here i am today more hooked on this hobby than anything else.

that would be my suggestion as well, invite the parents out and get them interested in what their son is up to! there is a guy out at our field that has an electric t-hawk with just the r/t/e no ailerons but it turns really well and will give him a great foundation, plus this guy has been flying it for like a year and has run it in harder than i have ever seen one go in, then he just runs out there, picks it up and throws it and off he goes! this would be perfect for this kid and if i werent in college with a broken down vehicle right now i would definitely paypal you a couple bucks sorry i cant help anymore than suggesting the t-hawk but i do think that is what i would suggest to his parents!

Something like a powered glider may be good here. It'll fly slow and give him time to react. Maybe a Multiplex Easy Star and a Hitec Neon SS 3-channel radio? If he's going to learn to fly, his parents will have to help along with a couple hundred to get him going. It depends on his parents their financial situation but I've kicked up a lot more than that for my boys as most of us probably have. From what I've read the Easy Star seems to be a rugged little bird and should last him, especially if he can get some instruciton. Kids I've seen learning to fly at that age seem to pick it up quite quickly.

Hogflyer

Bring it up at your next club meeting. Get the whole club involved. I,m sure someone has an old plane they don't fly anymore. I'll bet someone else might donate an engine or motor for the cause. You said you have a radio. You could set up a club plane he can learn on until he can save up enough to buy his own plane.

Also not to critize but why did you leave his side when he was just learning. If my instructor did that within my first 10 flights i would be pissed.

A Spirit might not be too bad either. If he doesn't glue the wings together, and just uses the dowels and tape, it will have a 3 piece wing. It won't take much of a motor, and if he uses a launcher like a Hi Start, the batteries will last forever.

Wish you lived closer. I have a few trainers I could part with, but shipping would be a problem.

I don't know enough about the various options to provide much help but I do want to commend you, Richard, for taking an interest and helping this young man out. Good job!

thanks guys. i have had 3 people come out with planes, very intrested but someone at the hobby shop sold them what they thought looked "cool" so i had a guy out at the field with a p-47 that had never flown in his life. so i asked if he needed help and he told me this was his first time. so i told him the plane he had wouldnt be good for learning. but he was already out to the field and ready to go, but was to scared to fly so i put him on a buddy box, after his batt died we talked for about 30 mins i gave him my phone number and i have never seen him agian. he did really well and seemed to really enjoy it. just ticks me off. and yea i know i beat myself up all the time about leaving his side. i asked if he had it and he had been flying alone for about 3 mins and this poor man was trying to carry a 90 size harrier and his radio. so i ran over to give him a hand and theen it happend. his parents were at the field, his grandmother seemed really intrested, his parents actually left him and his grandmother at the field while he was flying.
i think i may have found a eflight cub with a os 37, just woried about it being a tail drager. but hey if a p-51 can be a trainer i say why cant a cub?
thanks for the suport guys. and oh yeah no we dont have a club trainer. its not really a club just more like a flying site with a great froup of guys who fly.

its amazing how students can surprise you. they can seem like they are all so good and confident until that one time when something takes them by surprise. Then they either step up and regain control or they freeze and down it goes. Usually the freeze happens when you walk away because their fear level of doing something wrong goes up since you are not near them and so instead of reacting they try to think and time run out

Would maybe consider the gws e-starter as mentioned or one of the Multiplex, I had the MiniMag which was great and if you're there to give him some help shoud be OK with it

well i think ima step up and buy a 40 size nitro trainer cause i destroyed my tribute last night so i have a st 51 thats not doing anything. probally just a tower trainer. or nyone know a cheaper one thats not gonna fall apart on a rough landing?

All, Please be careful. There was a former member on RCU that was suspended from the Market place and used to live near me in Fayetteville, NC. His user ID was STD^Randomhero. Last I heard he moved to Colorado... Make any donations at your own risk. I feel it is more than a coincidence this similarity of the user ID. You may look up in the RCU community for suspended User ID's if you wish to verify my statements.

im not sure who STD^randomhero is, randomhero was my old counter strike name and 86 was when i was born. and im not really looking for cash/plane donations just ideas.

"thanks for any sugestions/donations.
richard" The last statement in your original post.
What you you are doing to help the kid is a noble thing.I think his parents ought to be more involved. I personally would resent a stranger buying/giving my kid an airplane. I recommend you check with them before you buy or give him anything.

Regards,
doubledee

I think kids flying RC airplanes is a touchy subject if the parents are not directly involved.
Its one thing for the kid to operate and fly a relatively safe entry level park flyer and it is something entirely different for him to try to operate say a 20 sized (or larger) glow trainer. The danger level is not comparable between the two. I do think it is great to be willing to help, but this is dangerous and you will be liable if an accident occurs. The best way to help is to teach the mom or dad to fly too and keep them in charge of the childs safety. If the parents are not willing to be involved then I really don't think it is wise to assume the total responsibility for the childs safty and actions.

Random:
My compliments to you. What you did is part of what this hobby is about and that is helping others. I always look to help kids get involved in R/C as it helps perpetuate the hobby and is good forthem.

well thanks agian guys, i didnt really look at it that way and im very thankfull you pointed that out for me. i think im going to buy a trainer for myself so i can have something stable incase anyone comes out that wants to fly. maybe i can open some kind of flight school? idk what i would need to be able to do that but. maybe that would be a cool thing to do. oh well off to go fly
later guys!

tell the kid if they get ahold of me somehow i will send him a avistar that i got for free from a friend absolutely free, the reason i am doing this is because that kid was me a long time ago, i bought a cheap electric for my first and it never saw more than 10 minutes of flight so i feel i will pass this one on.

I just say him agian at the field today i let him fly my bipe for a little bit but its just to aerobatic, pm me your cell number and if i see him tomarrow ill give it to his paretns. is this plane gonna need anything? like i said i have a radio and now a motor. but im rebuilding my tribute now, so the motor will be in use agian.
thanks