Ok, anybody that has been around this forum for any length of time has probably heard me sing the praises of the Tower Trainers. Now I won't go and say that they are "The Best" trainer ever made, but I will stand firmly that they are indeed the best bargain in a trainer that is available today. They fly great and they are priced very reasonably, and I can't even begin to count how many students have trained on them over the years. When asked for recommendations I will usually point people towards the Tower Trainers.

So here's where the kudos come in. We recently had a guy join our club who wanted to learn to fly, so he asked what I recommended as a trainer. So I pointed him to the Tower Trainers. He purchased the Tower Trainer 40 RTF package.

[link]http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXCXF4**&P=ML[/link]

He bought it before the price went up so he got it for $259, with a $20 discount from Tower. So overall cost was $239. This guy is a dentist that actually has offices in 3 different towns, so he's usually as busy as I am. We have tried for 4 weeks to get our schedules to sync up so I could help him put it together. He was VERY nervous about doing it himself so he really wanted me to be there to help putting it together. As any of you out there whio have learned to fly and relate to, he was starting to get anxious to fly his plane. We were set for last Thursday to get together on this, but I had to wait for an ATT repair tech to come over to repair a T-1 data line so I had to cancel on him. I told him to put the receiver and the transmitter on charge and we would see what we could do at the field on Saturday.

If any of you haven't seen the package, it's your standard trainer plane to start with. It comes with a Tower Hobbies 46 ABC engine (installed) and a Tower Hobbies 4 channel radio (installed also), and the radio is a remarked Futaba radio. This plane comes with the engine, server, battery, receiver, pushrods, and all control surfaces installed.

So Saturday morning rolls around. He shows up at the field and we open the box up on the tailgate of his truck. Literally, withing 30 minutes we had the entire plane assembled and sitting on a test stand breaking in the engine. We ran two tanks of fuel through it on the stand and then took it up to trim it out. He got in three good flights today before it was too hot to fly any more. So at the field in the back of a pickup truck we had his plane flying in less than an hour. Not bad, not bad indeed. I've been in this hobby for 12 years now and even I thought this was a pretty great accomplishment.

Ok, my rave is over. I just wanted to point out just how easy this plane was to assemble and get flying. Long gone are the days where pilots had to turn a box full of sticks into a flying airplane, they can now get it done in an evening. This just adds to my recommendation of the Tower Trainers.... easy to assemble, good flying, and a great price. A very nice package indeed.

Ken

I have had (2) Tower Trainer 60's. I did not need a trainer just wanted one to float around with and to teach others how to fly. I went camping one weekend and took a TT in the box with a new radio in the box with a new engine. I had the plane put together and flying in about 3 hours. They are a good flying plane.

Sounds like a good deal on the RTF version. I would like to see them have a 60 sized version that had the engine and radio installed.


Dru.

I have to agree, I have worked with two guys with the tower trainers. One has both the 40 and the 60 and the other has the 40. I think I like the 60 a little better and that just stands to reason.

Anyone that asks me I just point them to the Tower Trainer. I too like the 60 but it makes little difference, just A bit easier to see in the air for the old guys with bad eyes.[&o]

That is actually a good thing and a bad thing. It's too bad that most people have no interest in building anymore. I can understand if someone doesn't want to get a kit for their first plane but I think they should at least get the ARF. Then they have some concept of how the plane goes together and what makes it work.

That being said, I also learned how to fly on a Tower Trainer and it is an excellent plane.

I'm glad to hear that these are such good planes! I have a Tower Trainer 60 and I've finally gotten it repaired to be airworthy. I can't wait to fly it again!

Trainers are just that - trainers. I wanted the biggest and baddest trainer, the best looking, the most features, so I got the Nexstar. Sure it did it's job, but surely no better than the people at my club learning on the Tower Trainer. It's a solid, reliable, and rugged plane. And, it's a great value.

If I were to do it all over again, I'd get the Tower Trainer (ARF, 'cause I like to put things together) in a second.

A new guy showed up at the field a few weeks ago with a tattered Tower Trainer that looked very familiar for some reason. I looked at it and it had the blue .46-LA then I noticed a covering repair that was similar to one I made when I first had my Tower Trainer. I asked the guy where he got the plane and he said his wife bought it for him from somebody else and that that guy had bought it at a garage sale a few years back but never flew it. The story matched and it turned out to definitely be my old plane.

It was nice to see it still flying and helping someone else learn. Of course the guy cartwheeled it on landing and tore the stab loose but it is fixable and will be back flying again. The poor plane has really been beat up but it just keeps coming back for more.

The kit built version builds into a very solid wing too. don't ask how I know
Mike

The Tower trainer is actually the Hobbico superstar just renamed i think. Anyways, my son is nine and flies the heck out of his trainers(he has the tower and the superstar). He can fly those trainers from one side of the field to the other inverted, rolls, loops, landings, and it's as reliable as your best friend everytime. His was the arf so it has the evolution trainer setup on it. He has wrecked the tower, tore the gear out from under it!! Filleted the whole nose open but it was back together in one evening and going again!! Love these planes

Minnflyer and I built a Tower Trainer from a kit for our video series on [link=http://www.gettingairborne.com]www.gettingairborne.com[/link], and yes it is a very solid built trainer.

Ken

Where would you rank the skyraider? Is the TH trainer your top recomendation in RTF form, or just the plane in general? Only complaint about the skyraider would be the not so specific instruction manual.

Brett,
I don't have any first hand experience with the Skyraider, so I wouldn't want to venture a guess on it.

Ken

The Sky Raider is a very solid flying model. It is really just a low wing Ugly Stik, and goes where you point it. Assembly is straight forward, though the manual is slightly meager compared to trainers.

Downside - The landing gear needs some beefing up, unless you land smoothly. The fuselage is also the typical light ply with cutouts, so it is not overly strong. But most arfs are built this way, and so compared to a good balsa design, it breaks over minor crashes.

Upside - Very cheap, flys very well, and if you put a TT40 in it, you can go racing.

I've owned and flown both the Skyraider Mach-1 and the Tower Trainer. The Sky Raider has a semi-symetrical airfoil rather than the flat bottom of the Tower Trainer. This, along with a little less dihedral angle makes the Sky Raider more aerobatic while the Tower Trainer has better self-correcting and other "traditional" trainer characteristics.

The Sky Raider wing bolts on with metal screws vs. rubber bands on the Tower Trainer. This means that the Tower trainer will be a little more forgiving during the mishaps that most pilots have when they start out. I can personally attest to the rubber bands allowing the wing to pop loose with minimal damage.

In my opinion, the Tower Trainer is probably a better first plane although plenty of people at our field start out on the Sky Raider and do just fine. The Sky Raider really shines as an intermediate plane that can be flown lazily or tossed around depending on your mood. I kick myself for letting mine go every time I see one. I know the manual is pretty pathetic compared to something like a Great Planes ARf but the Sky Raider Mach-1 really is an excellent airplane. I'd recommend it to just about anyone.

Hi Ken,

Nice review of the Tower Trainer.

I had looked at the Tower Trainer 40 several times but now I'm waiting for the new Alpha 40 RTF with Spektrum technology. The price on the TT went up to $279 and the Alpha 40 is $299 so I figured the Spektrum Technology alone would be worth the extra $20. The only problem with the Alpha 40 is that it is not shipping yet.

How do you get the $20 discount from Tower Hobbies?

Thanks,
Bob

Tower regularly runs special discounts based on how much you spend. The amounts vary from month to month, so you'll have to keep watching. My student got $20 off a purchase of $250 or more at the time he bought it. Check the front page of Tower's website for their current discounts.

Ken

If you haven't signed up for their email newsletter you should. They'll send you a $20 off when you spend $50 or more coupon for just signing up.[sm=thumbs_up.gif]

Both my buddy and I purchased Tower Trainer 40 ARFs as hacks, there is just something relaxing about trainers that higher performance planes do not have. Anyway, both trainers suffered catastrophic spar failures within 10 flights (no arobatics just straight and level then land). We did some analysis and discovered that the spars themselves had failed first right at the angle in the middle, this of course lead to the epoxy joint between the center ribs failing. Both planes fell nose in to the ground and were seriously damaged. In the end, we have both contacted Tower and received excellent treatment and replacement aircraft. I can say this, other than my original Flight Star 40 (which I am hopelessly partial to), the Tower Trainer is one of the best flying ARF trainers (out of the box) that I have ever flown. When I complete the replacement plane I will probably use SIG wood to build a better spar, but I can really say that the Tower Trainer 40 is an excellent deal at $70 something.

Been through 2 of em, the last one came with a bad tank and soaked the fuse, not wanting to bother sending it in I baby powdered it several times and hoped for the best, well one good hard landing and it was destroyed...I check into getting another one and theyve gone up $15 to $79, still a good buy, I still may get another.....Rog

ChuckW, I have a question about the "rubber bands" holding the wings on the Tower Trainer; mine is a 60. I've also got a "SkyBox Fly40" with a "rubber band" setup.

What is a "good" number of rubber bands to use on a fairly light trainer plane like the TT60 (or even LIGHTER the SkyBox Fly40"). I've heard that 6 is PLENTY to hold it tight and keep it from moving around, but one guy told me a MINIMUM of 12 was mandatory (i personally thought he had a weird rubberband fetish....). It seems to me that with TWELVE rubber bands you would LOOSE that whole "wing busting loose on crash" effect entirely. I can almost pull my CAR with 12 !!!! It dang sure won't come loose in the air, but I though it was WAY overkill....

Any "tips" on a GOOD number that will hold a decent sized plane that's not a total brick? I'm thinking a plane w/ the weight of a TT60 would be a perfect "baseline" (it's a little larger than other trainers and has an OS .60 engine + pretty big tank)without compromising the whole reason the bands are there. A plane like the SuperBox Fly40 is so light it can practicaly fly with a twisted rubber band like an old 2D balsa

I almost always use 6 on his trainer. he whips it around alot and there has never been a problem.
P. S. it's always 6 new ones each time.

Use 12 #64 rubber bands. 5 on each side of the fuselage and the cross the last 2, this will hold the other bands on. While there are some that will try to get as many flying days as they can out of a set of rubber bands, but to me it's just not worth the risk. Use fresh rubber bands each flying day. Don't buy them from your LHS, you can them cheaper at Office Depot

See below. A new offer pops up fairly often.

I did see that. Just for kicks, I tried to add the TT 40 and a TT BB .46 to my cart since you need to spend at least $149. The engine is out of stock. It seems like Tower, and a lot of other online stores have a lot of items on back order or just temporarily unavailable. I know, I could have ordered servos, glow plugs etc., but it would seem that if they have the ARF available they should also have the recommended engine available too.

Anyway, I'm waiting for the new Alpha 40 which SHOULD be available mid September.