kwelz

My Feedback: (6)

No not for me. I am a bit past this (although not much on some days)

But wouldn't a 40 sized Cub make a really nice trainer.
I mean you have a fairly large, easy to see airplane. Slow and easy to control. What else could you want in a trainer?

I would just like others input on this. I am thinking of getting a H-9 Cub soon, and I want to teach the soon to be wife how to fly. So wouldn't this make a nice combo?

xp8103

My Feedback: (16)

No. No. No. Well.... No. If Cubs were the ONLY plane available to learn to fly RC on then yes, it would be a good trainer. But there are SO many other planes out there that make better trainers. A Cub is not the easiest plane to take off or land and not the easiest to ground handle, most tail draggers aren't. It also doesnt right itself as well as the garden variety trainers. It is a scale plane and has scale stall characteristics that aren't conducive to learning.

I'll offer that in 1975(ish), I learned how to fly on a Top Flite Contender. It was my Dad's and he had the patience to teach me. Now, is the Contender a good basic trainer? I'll tell you what, having flown both a Contender and a Cub at length, I will say that it is probably better than a Cub when it come to training. It is EXTREMELY stable, has the slow flight characteristics of the most BASIC of trainers, will land at almost a walking pace and takes huerculean effort to stall. And it is a tricycle geared plane which makes it easy to take off, land and taxi. About the only thing it doesnt do is right itself when in a compromising position. Would I recommend a Contender as a basic trainer? No. Like the Cub, it does some things REALLY well but there are so many others out there that will make the learning experience MUCH more enjoyable.

Good luck!!

stang51

Probably not the best idea in my opinion.
I have taught a lot of folks to fly and I would recommend you get a regular trainer to get someone going.
The Cub might look pretty but its flying characteristics aren't the greatest for a beginner.

Unstable

I have to disagree.. the hangar9 cub (80") is what I spent most of my training on.

there are a few quirks that make it more difficult than a trainer.

a: ground loop. the trainee will need to learn rudder control on the ground real quick, but in the end I am sure they will benefit from it.

b: rudder coordination in the turns.. although you dont NEED to coordinate your turns you will find that it will help if you do... but again I feel this only helps the student in the long run.

c: you need to land SLOW or else it will nose over (see avatar) it may take a bit longer to learn how to land with this but with practice in slow flight it should be too much of a issue. .


there are a few advatages.

Cub yellow: you can see it for miles, I would fly hundreds of feet above everyone else and not have a problem with orientation.

slow flight. cubs are nice and gentle slow fliers

they look better than any trainer out there.

so its not as good as some of the trainers out there but it is quite possible to learn on one.

greenboot

My Feedback: (1)

Learning to fly with a beautiful plane like the Cub sets sets the stage for major disappointment if something goes wrong. A cheap ARF trainer is easily fixed or replaced.

Tom

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

2 major problems:

1 Taildragger

2 Bolted on wings

AR196

If you're a pansy, there are two problems:

1. taildragger

2.bolt on wings

(Sorry, MinnFlyer).

If you are there to help, no problem.

I routinely took first timers out with my Sig 1/4 size clipped wing cub. No problem - not with them or the plane at least.


You can imagine my astonishement when these people do a loop and try a roll on the first flight. Mind you, I did use a buddy box TX hook up, just in case.

Guess I was the pansy!!

FLYBOY

My Feedback: (11)

Go for it. I don't know why that would be a problem. If you have a buddy box, you can teach someone to fly in the same ammount of time on that plane as any other. I have done it. You don't need a "trainer" to teach on. If the instructor is good, you should have no worries. I know a guy that learned to fly full scale in a twin because he wouldn't get into a single engine plane. There were people that said that couldn't be done either but hey, it worked. Cubs are as easy to fly as a trainer.

Gastronom-RCU

My Feedback: (5)

I might worry about the flat bottom of the wing and it's tendency to balloon on landings. Always heard that it would be a bad choice to get one as a trainer,, but I wouldn't have had any troubles with it. hehe

DaveB

I would recommend a trainer similar to the "Tower Trainer 40", "GP PT40" or similar. Make it easy on yourself and advance later.

One of the best parts of this hobby is building (or buying ARF's) new planes.

DaveB

Wayne22

My Feedback: (2)

I will echo Nik's opinion and say "no" as well.

Not saying that it can't be done with some effort, or hasn't been done before, but it is not the best platform for a newbie.

However, what can be done if you want to expend the effort is to clip the wings on a Goldberg Cub , and put tricyle landing gear on it, making it a sorta Tri Pacer. This combo is a sweet flyer even on a smallish engine. Still, why bother when there are so many trainer choices available.

The other disadvatage of cubs as trainers, is that if the student ever hooks a wing tip or does even a minor cartwheel, the wing twists off the fuselage causing extensive and sometimes irrepairable damage. That cabin with all those windows is not strong enough to withstand that kind of force. The high wing, and narrow landing gear add to the risk that this will happen at some point.......

Bottom line.....get a beater trainer, and save the cub for your second or third airplane.

flap

Itd be a shame to let someone booger up a nice cub with a lot of hard & bounced landings and patches?

AR196

flap,

if the student did what you suggest, then that ub would look like most of the fuul size ones I've seen!!

Very scale, I'd say.

Live Wire

Cubs do not like the ground. Getting up and down is the hard part. The cub is not a trainer unless you are a builder or like to buy AFS. You still have to build sorry.