OK,

Stoped by my LHS and talked to the guy there who has been doing rc planes for sum 18 years.

He says that the tower trainer is a sub-par plane in construction compared to the Arrow.

What do you guys think?

He also said that the arrow is still better then the avistar....

Tower trainer is an excellent plane. The Arrow and the Avistar are a bit more capable in the aerobatics department because of their semi-semetrical wing designs (they fly inverted better which improves the look of rolls and other manouvers that require the plane to fly inverted). To bash the Tower Trainer's construction sounds like he just wants to sell a more expensive plane (that he has in stock). Between the Arrow and the Avistar they both have possitives and negatives. If you go for the RTF packages the Avistar only comes with an OS .40 LA and it can be a challenge to get it airborne from a grass feild that needs to be cut. Put a bearing .46 on the avistar (like the other two come with) and it is awsome. I have flown all three of these planes and would recomend any of them as good trainers that you could not go wrong with.

I own the Arrow. While I cant speak for the other two, I can say the arrow is a good plane to learn on. Properly trimmed she flies well, and stable.

I can also attest to the durability of the Arrow[X(] as I have put her in once, the rebuilt firewall cost me less than $10, and a lot of bruised ego.

Jentzsch, I flew the avistar for a while and regreted selling it! With an O.S. AX .46 it was a blast to fly. the clamping engine
mount allowed me to use it for testing used engines. I can vouch for it's durability. During a cross wind landing, I put it hard into
the safety fence. A small dent in the leading edge was easily repaired. After swapping to an LA .46, It still flew well. The only
problem was that the wire landing gear was too soft. I installed an aluminum main gear from one of my old "victims" Easy mod!
I'm actually thinking about buying another avistar. I would be the only plane I have bought twice. $99. well spent.

I got my avistar for $45
It flew fine with a .40LA...I wasn't on grass thou.
I had to add a .46 on it because of the extra weight the wheel pants added when I did the tail draging.

I nevered owned a full Tower.
I inheritaed a Tower wing with the diehedral removed. it's was will constructed.

I think your LHS doesn't carry the Tower Trainer...

If you're interested in getting the very best RTF trainer package on the market, bar none, you should purchase the Hangar 9 Alpha .60 RTF trainer. It's as close to perfect as you'll get all in one box and 98% assembled.

It is just an opinion and a preference. You'll find no shortage of those. As was also mentioned, the Tower product is not available at the LHS.

Nothing sub par about the Tower trainers construction.
You will find many people saying this trainer is better or that trainer is best. The truth is most of them are perfectly fine.
I lean toward the Sig line and the Kadet Senior but that doesn't mean it is not any better than any other trainer out there.
There are exceptions. CPM models or anything from the Nitro-Models website, although ok planes the instructions are really bad and being new to the hobby you will want something with good instructions. Duraplane are built to be crash resistant but that also makes them heavier and requires them to fly faster to prevent stalling. The Hangar 9 PTS airplanes are open for debate, some like them some don't.

I've instructed with the Arrow before. It's a good plane and perhaps a tad bit better built. But any of the 3 will do just fine with a good instructor.

I'm learning on an avistar with an older supertiger .51 on it. It tooks some weight on the back for balancing but it has turned this plane into a monster. I've never flown the other two.

I've been flying the Tower Trainer for over a year with no issues. I modified it to a tail-dragger for grass. So the only real reinforcement was where the new LG attached. You do need to hold more down elevator when inverted, so the comments about it's aerobatic capabilities are probably on-target. The Tower Trainer is pretty docile with a .46 up front, however when I open it up and switch to high rates it does all that I ask of it.

Any of the choices will probably work well for you. Actually, I'd recommend spending time researching which radio and engine you'll want/need as those two aspects of your training set-up will also have a big impact on your overall impression with the hobby. It took probably a good 2 months for my engine to fully break-in. During that time my instructor and I had to retune it almost every session.