Hi,
This topic comes up often, and thats a good thing. When have I mastered a trainer? And
When should I go to a second airplane? Two very different questions. And there are no answers that fit all circumstances. SO here are a few things to do with your trainer while that new second plane is on the bench. BEFORE YOU START HAVE YOUR MOTOR DIALED IN SO YOU HAVE A DEPENDABLE IDLE. ( that is supossed to be part of the TRAINING phase too)
1) Fly figure 8s one foot over the runway using the runway as a boundry. REALLY gets the throttle control down pat.
2) Touch and goes, But make the approaches LONG and Low again using the throttle to place the touch just where you want it.
3) one wheel touch and go...Yes you have to declair which wheel first! Harder than it sounds!
4) Experiment with techniques such as CRABBING, It is a good cross wind tecnique.
5) Reset the throws on everything to max if you have dual rates. Or just increase the throws some if you don't.
6) Axial rolls, requires coordinated elevator and rudder inputs on most trainers.
Then consecutive axial rolls
7) Fly a circuit without using the ailerons. My instructor made me do this. He actually disconected them, took off and had me fly, then he landed it.
8) Fly on days that are just a little bit windier than your comfort zone. You'll fly more often this way!
9) Add floats[sm=drowning.gif]
There has to be a bunch of others. Few people really master a trainer.
There is no end to the fun with good dependable trainer.
As for the second airplane just ask your wife, she knows when its OK[sm=lol.gif]

8) Fly on days that are just a little bit windier than your comfort zone. You'll fly more often this way!
I seemed to be doing this all the time, and by now I'm having so much fun flying in a stiff breeze that I'm not sure I want it to end.

9) Add floats
Is on my todo list, because I can find a lot more flying space sans obstacles over the river than I can in a park.

10? Strap a $5 keychain camera on the plane to evaluate your flight and then try to
- fly smooth shallow bank turns
- fly coordinated turns
- fly gradual ascents & descents so that the horizon remains in view
If it works, the resulting video is easy to watch, if not, it's jerky and mildly horrifying.

Doing this I found it's a lot harder to fly a very gentle pattern than it looks.

11. if trainer is a trike then convert to a taildragger
12. fly inverted as low to the ground as you dare ( really fun )
13. add a bomb bay or bomb drop ( hard to get plastic eggs in a bucket)
14. fly around a tree that is a good distance away ( really test your eyes )
15. keep trainer just in case you get of the hobby and want to come back or havent been flyin in a while and want to refresh your fingers
16. try to hover ( havent tried but there is a video of a trainer hovering on youtube)

For some reason, I saw this thread's title and almost expected to see photos of a trainer on fire or something equally as wrong ...... perhaps I need more coffee or something?

Sr No 16 in fly boy2's post is possible. For that you have to move the CG well back. But with a normal trainer you can hover for a few seconds: Approach with 50% throttle as low as you dare and then suddenly nose up and apply full throttle. Try to correct with all three controls till it simply drops out of vertical. Works best with a oversized engine (55AX on a 40 sized trainer)

Ameyam

Fun for sure, but its hard to do twice![>:]

I know the standard advice on the forum here is to stick with the trainer as long as possible, but I really disagree. It is fun to watch a guy hotdog a trainer and fun to see how much you can get out of it for sure, but all of those maneuvers are easier with a sport plane. I recommend Ugly Sticks for second airplanes because they are so easy to handle. The Sig 4 Star is a close second and good for a pilot who wants to fly low wing scale planes next. Every one of the above mentioned moves is easier with a sport plane that with a trainer, so why handicap the student with a plane that fights him? I figure a student pilot should use the easiest plane to fly for whatever maneuvers he wants to do.

This is very true. However, doing maneuvers on a trainer really makes the pilot work at getting the mechanics of the maneuver down correctly. With sport or aerobatic planes a good part of the maneuver is from the plane, like you said it's easier. So when you do these maneuvers on the trainer it's all you and nothing from the plane. This is a good way to make sure you are technically correct with doing something before you do in other planes. Iuse my trainer all the time for doing just this, practicing maneuvers.

Along the lines of the thread topic, I've always promoting a pilot keeping their trainer even after they have moved on to other planes. Sometimes it's a totally blast to take your trainer out to the field for a flying day and just fly the snot out of it. I've been flying almost 15 years and Istill have my trainer that Itake to the field. It's funny that when you learn to fly you think your trainer if flying SOOOOOOFAST, but when you go back to your trainer years later you wonder how a plane can fly SOOOOOOOSLOW!!!!! Trainers are also fun to keep around for club fun flying events.

Ken

Just a little devil's advocate, sometimes forcing a trainer to do these moves means you end up putting in stick movements that aren't necessary for a more capable plane. So when you get out your sport plane, what you learned on a trainer doesn't necessarily completely carry over.

Don't get me wrong, a trainer is great long after someone has soloed and can still be loads of fun, especially trying to get it to do ridiculous things, but at the same time, it does have limits.

I think a stick is the best second plane choice also. It is also a great first scratch build if you want to scratch or just scratch building to keep the budget in line. FREE PLANS ARE EVERYWHERE

Have a plan on what to do to get the model back if you should stick a float tip and flip it on it's back BEFORE you take off. Running along the shore asking strangers if you can borrow a boat may take longer than your receiver is able to remain watertight. And if you're on a lee shore a stalled engine makes a floatplane into a passable ocean-going sailboat that won't tack upwind.

You can almost turn your trainer into your second plane. Take your trainer wing and remove all deihedral, ie flaten it out, remove wing tips then one rib bay from each end. then go from trike to tail dragger. This is what I did to my trainer on advice from a club member, it turned the trainer into a completly different flying plane

I have never have or would be without at least one trainer, thats been a long time

Typically everyone solos with a flat wing... or atleast everyone at my field did. I soloed with a trainer with a semi-symmetrical wing high winger as my first airplane. Once the aerobatic bug bit me, I did almost every aerobatic move (except hover and knife-edge) on that airplane. My model also had 65" span (on a 40 size airplane with a 55AX engine) which made it very stable during training phase and gave the power and control during aerobatic phase. Would recommend that everyone should try to get hold of a semi-symmetrical trainer and learn aerobatics on it

Ameyam

Learn to fly inverted, just straight line stuff to begin with then cicrcuits - figure 8s etc.

Most trainers will manage inverted but you might need to move the cg back a bit.

My first trainer ended up with a destroyed fuselage, but good wings and tail feathers. I built a stick fuselage for it and went to a tail dragger at the same time. It was a much better flying plane. Eventually, I crunched the wing so I upgraded it from the flat bottom to the airfoil of the 4*60, but scaled to size. Less dihedral and wow, was it fun. I ended up killing that one and built a clone of it and flew it for a while before killing it. I've still got the damage fuselage in the hanger and I"m tempted to bring it back to life.

Build a second wing for your trainer. More symmetry on the airfoil and less dihedral. Try a clipped wing for better performance.

Don

Everyone wants to get right out of there trainer and into a newer/better plane, trainers are just way too much fun to fly. At the moment I'm without one but I'm sure someone at the field will get a new plane and want to get rid of the trainer, I'm ready!! Most fun I have with them is in wind so strong everyone else is grounded and you have to dive to get the trainer moving forward.

G'day

Get a couple of friends who also have trainers, tie some streamers on them and go streamer chasing. You get extra points for a mid-air.

You must have been happy when you no longer had to use dried animal skins for covering.

(Love the anhedral high-wing)

Ken

Someone has your number, John...

CGr

I sold my trainer and was sorry I did... so I bought another!!! I now use it just as Ken said. I take it out just to practice, and to get "back to basics". And, you know, it was hard to fly that stupid thing!! I was so glad to get back to a capable plane... well, you know what I mean.

CGr

Things to do with a trainer:

- Add lights and glow wires all around, then fly it at night. It's a perfect plane for night flying.

Hmm dried animal skins now your talking heck if sheep stomach was good enought for the gas bags in the Hindenburg guess its good enough for me, Oh man! I guess they leaked didn,t they [X(]

Love the anhedral it works. The trainer donar was a midwest Aerostar. The latest wing donars are flat bottom tower trainer wings, Working on a gull wing also when the mood hits.

Night flying you bet here is my senior telly wing in the pic:

Here is a vidio of my Senior Kaydet nighrt flying. Was mentoring the young Grasshopper in to the joys of night flight with his Uproar also. It was his first time and of course would not go untill I did the first one but could not wait to get up afterwords and thereafter did about four just as fast as he could fill the tank all to my one flight that nignt, Oh man to have that kind of energy

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...6118616836462#