A good second kit
 

Hi
So I've finally gotten my TH trainer .40 finished. I'm prolly gonna fly it for the first time this weekend. I've flown a sky fly max for a while and feel as though I'm ready to make the jump to my bigger trainer. I've actually had it for about twenty years now; kinda fell away from the hobby for a while while I was in college....and you guys know the whole story...guy meets girl. Guy marries girl. Girl has baby. And 2 1/2 years later after being being damaged during a move I've fixed it finally! So with all that said....I don't have a ton of time to devote to a build so it will take me long time to build a plane start to finish and I was gonna start building my second plane soon. So hopefully it will be ready when I have enough experience. Question....what is a good second plane to own? I was thinking a cub but don't really have any idea. Any thoughts?

Thanks
Mike

Sig 4 Star was my second plane, I love it. I went up in size to a 60 and put a .91 Four Stoke in it.

The plane is an easy build amd is really fun to fly. Other good ones would be a Tiger II. I have a Cub as well, but have never flown it, people tell me they are more tricky than you would think. Sport Scale planes like th GP .40 Corsair are also great to build but are a bit tougher to handle in the air.

A Goldberg Cub would be a good choice, as would the Great Planes version. The 1/5 Sig Cub is an excellent choice, too.

I love Cubs, but you do have to have a solid foundation in your piloting abilities to enjoy one. They get tossed around by moderate winds quite a bit, so if you are still expecting the plane to right itself like a trainer you'll be in for some surprises. The biggest challenge with them is ground handling, because they are not forgiving of the landing gear not being straight. If you get everything right, you'll find that you need some right rudder as you advance the throttle before making a smooth acceleration down the runway and a touch of right rudder as you rotate to takeoff. If you get it wrong, you'll find that that plane does the hungry bee waggle dance all the way to the scene of the high speed ground loop and subsequent cartwheel crash. Many a new Cub with scuffed wingtips has been sold for pennies on the dollar at swap meets because its owner didn't take the time to get the LG right. 4 Stars, Ugly Sticks and other pilot friendly sport planes are much more tolerant of a bad undercarriage setup, so most of us don't learn the importance of it for scale planes until we've been flying quite a while.

I think the Big Stick 40 is a perfect 2nd plane. It has pretty docile flying characteristics, but with a semi-symmetrical airfoil, it can easily perform any basic aerobatic maneuver, and then some. The GP ARF kit is fairly inexpensive (about $150) and very easy to assemble, especially if you have building experience.

Goldberg Tiger II, Sig Four Star, Sig Mid Star, Sig Somthin Extra, Tower Hobbies Fun 51, many, many others. My favorite is the Tiger II. I don't think a Cub would be my choice for a second airplane. Maybe a third or fourth.

Everybody should have stick of some description http://www.eurekaaircraft.com/plan_kits/uglystick60.htm.

The original Sky Tiger (I am guessing that it was the Tiger II's older brother) was was very popular in the 1990's. I never flew one myself, but many people chose it as their second plane.

the Venture 60 from Bruce Tharpe is a really quick build, if built to plans, you can probably have it together in 5 or 6 days if using CA, a little longer with wood glue. The finish on the parts out of the box is nearly perfect, leaving almost no reason to sand. It flies very well, I had a 91 fs on mine and it was a great flier. The Tiger 60 and 4Star 60 are pretty quick and simple to frame up, and both fly quite nicely. I haven't given up flying the ones I still own, other than the trainer, they are the ones that get flown most. One day, I will pick up a Stick in a 60 size, the basic construction is simple, and while I haven't owned one, I know many who do and the love wringing them out.