Hello all. I have been a member of rcuniverse for quite a while now but on the heli side. I have decided to get into airplanes too. I found the [link]http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXCXF438&P=7[/link]Tower Hobbies Trainer 40 RTF for $220.

Does anyone own/have experience with this plane? This is the type of airplane I was looking for to start with, and the price looks very good. Now I know that the transmitter/receiver are of low quality but I plan on putting in a spektrum receiver for use with my sprektrum dx6i radio. Are the servos any good? Overall is this a good price?

Thanks in advance for any help with this.

The Tower Trainer in IMHO one of the best buys out there. It's a great trainer at a good price. This is the same plane that I learned to fly on 12 years ago, and I still have it today. You'll do well with this package.

Ken

I had one of these (ARF) with an OS .46-LA. It was a great airplane for the money. If you plan on using your exisiting Spektrum Radio however, the RTF may not be the way to go. You could buy the ARF version of this plane, an OS .46-AX engine (more user friendly than the Tower .46 in my opinion), 4 servos suitable for the plane and a receiver battery for around the same price as the RTF. Since you are going to pull out the 72MHz radio anyhow, I'd go the ARF route and get a better engine for the same money. Assembly would still be a piece of cake. That's just my opinion of course. You could also just fly the RTF with the included radio, there is nothing wrong with it at all and it's very simple.

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXCAS2&P=0

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXFMD5&P=0

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXDEL9&P=0

I second the ARF setup. You get the experience of assembling the plane, which helps you understand how things go together and how to make adjustments and repairs if need be it really becomes your own plane.

Also no need for the second radio. Spend the same money and get a better engine.

not to direct you away from tower, they have wonderful products and i use them often, just not for planes.. i am in college and try to find the best deal available, and i think that i have done so at texasrcplanes.com.. they have a several trainers one of which i know to be the best trainer i have ever seen! i will include the link to this particular trainer, if you are posting a thread about a good price, then i assume that you are looking to save a little money, so here is a wonderful balsa arf trainer that you can use your spektrum radio with and save some money in the process.

http://texasrcplanes.com/explorer.html
a great trainer for the price that can carry you on to be your second plane on high rates!

or if you just want a good trainer for even less money:
http://texasrcplanes.com/arftr.html

$220 is a great price and the transmitter and receiver are not low quality at all.
I would fly it with the radio that comes with it.

Great deal. It's a great platform to train on, now go get it!

The trainer you linked to in ARF form is $69.99. The Tower Trainer in ARF form is $64.99: http://www.towerhobbies.com/products/towa1110.html . For grins, I also checked out shipping rates. Texas R/C wants $16.53 to ship to me, while Tower charges a flat rate of $7.99. I'm curious where the saving is? Also, how's the spare parts availability for the stuff from Texas R/C? Replacement parts typically in stock at Tower include wings, fuse, tail set, landing gear, etc.

Less money? The shipping charge on that one went up to $21.21, which makes it $7.23 more than the Tower trainer, and that doesn't even factor in having to factor in an additional shipment, assuming that the OP decides to buy online versus from a local shop, for a radio, engine, and all the other misc things one needs.

Im not exactly sure on the quality of this plane you want to buy but for an extra 100$ you can get the alpha 40 trainer by hangar 9 which is the one I have and it comes with transmitter, rciever, and servos, and engine, great quality plane. Has some pretty good reviews on it on this website, you should check it out. Its the traioner im useing and it flys like an angel.

I have had both and I would go with the Alpha 40 like Rockerdude22 recommends. I'm flying the Alpha 60 now and love it!.... The Tower 46 engine with the Trainer never really ran completely right. I hated the rubber bands holding the wing in place.