I don't recall if I mentioned this or not. A few weeks ago, our club was working with the FAA to have a day of RC familiarization with a group of kids that were in the Careers in Aviation (CIA) program. We provided some intro-pilot training for those that wanted to go up and try RC, and demo flights with various types of aircraft.

Well, before the event, I offered my trainer, well, it belongs to me, but it is a "club trainer" and buddy box. Just before the kids got there, I put it up to make sure it was ok, but ended up crashing it due to unknown conditions. It simply stopped responding on a downwind leg of an orbit, and hit the ground. I didn't have much time to do a 'post mortum' so I gave it to one of the other pilots and said that if he could fix it, he could have it. BTW, I was on channel 48. We've been having spurious problems with channels around 48. It may have been one of these. I lost everything but throttle.. for some reason.. and it went in.

Well, I was at the LHS today, talking to the owner about what happened. He said he had a trainer in stock and would give it to me at cost. Now how nice is this!!! Our LHS owner, Dave, Seaport Hobbies in Tuckerton, NJ by the way, is one of the good guys. So, I bought it. It's an ARF. I have some plans for it, though, and it will be a trainer, but a bit of an advanced trainer. It will have all the capabilities of a trainer, but will have a bit more.

What I plan on doing is putting in a very stable servo system to control the elevator and rudder, and probably a servo on each aileron.

I know.. it doesn't need all that stuff, but what difference can it make. It give me something to do at night..

I have an OS 46 on my Goldberg Wildstick 40. The wildstick needs some attention. But, the engine is in perfect shape.. so it's going on the Alpha 40. I am also going to pick up a new Spektrum 6i system and put that on the plane. That way, I can buddy box up with my DX7.

I may convert it over to tail dragger. That will 'kill two birds with one stone'. When buddy box'ing it up, I will take it up, and then transfer over to the student. And I will land it, in most situations. But, for more 'advanced students', this will give them an opportunity to fly a tail dragger, both in take-off and landing. It should really round out their training. Understand that most of our students are working with as many as four instructors, and usually have either their own plane, or are on the 'club' trainer. So, they won't miss out on the basic tricicle system.

If you have any thoughts or ideas, please let me know.

I am in the 'read the book' phase right now. Building... er.. assembly... starts next week.

CGr.

"Read the book?" How long does it take to memorize the C/G?

It was a sort of a joke, Phil. No one ever reads the book.... hardly ever that is..

C/G? What's that? I suppose I ought to re-read that book!!!

What is this? "What I plan on doing is putting in a very stable servo system to control the elevator and rudder.." Is there a new servo system on the market?

Thanks