Okay,
I want to learn this hobby and build my trainer. I am leaning towrds the Tower Trainer or the Goldberg Eagle II.
Should I start with a kit including ailerons or not?

I've built some before but nothing like a full kit unless you count the Guliiows kits.

Any suggestions are welcome and thanks in advance.

either one would be a great kit and yes go for the ailerons. If you actually got the gillows kit to fly straight I would count it. I've build dozens of rc kits but Ive never gotten a gillow FF rubber band kit to fly right. Larger RC kits are much easier to build since everything is so much bigger and are engineered better. Any minor building flaw is simply trimmed out in flight.

I vote for the Eagle 2, just because it's what I learned to fly with. A really forgiving airplane, extremely slow landings, and can fly with an O.S. .40 FP/LA. Welcome to the hobby!! I also recommend learning with ailerons. It's a lot simpler than trying to learn them later. Get in touch with a local flying club, and they can give you an introductory flight, and explain any questions you might have.

I had the Tower Trainer ARF and it flew great. I wish I'd gotten the kit version though so I could have built it a little better. My first RC kit was a Great Planes PT-40; it was fairly straight forward from what I remember. Another good option is the Sig Kadet LT-40 or LT-25. Sig makes excellent kits in my opinion.

As others have said, go for the ailerons. Your goal is probably to advance to models with ailerons anyway so I would just learn that from the start.

I would recommend the GP PT-60 trainer. Nice size, easy to see and flies very nice (and has ailerons). great instructions and very easy to build. You can usually get a 'combo' deal with kit and engine. Plus, when you are ready to step up, you will already have a 60 size engine.

I think the bigger 60 size is easier to fly than the 40 size.

The Sig LT-25 gets my vote. I soloed with it the first day at the field within 30 minutes. I did however practice a few months on a Great Planes flight sim. prior to the real flight. I have since moved on to more advanced aircraft including helis and a warbird, but I still enjoy flying the LT-25. The LT-40 would also be a solid choice, but the 25 can even fly slower. Dont be afraid of the tail dragger set up, its so easy to land and take off with this plane. Its a great hobby, welcome.

I've seen the Eagle 2 ARF fly and it was a good trainer. The kit would probably be better than the ARF. I built my first kit with not much more experience than you have, and it is getting close to 150 flights on it.

While believing in building over buying ARFs, I would make an exception for someone's first trainer as they take a lot of abuse and punishment. However, if you want to build it you can always beef it up so that it will last. Any ARF trainer needs that anyway. Through misfortune I had to buy an ARF trainer for my first plane instead of a kit. It needed a new fuselage bottom to reinforce the flimsy gear, firewall reinforcement, and it wasn't even fuel proofed in the engine area. That and a few more things have kept it in flying condition even though it has a lot of patches all over.

I learned on the Eagle over 20 years ago and still like it today. Can't go wrong with that one. If you end up with the ARF, replace the pushrods with something like goldenrods. The setup that is provided is a PITA.

Tom

Almost all of the trainers are good. IMO the larger the better, they slow down very nicely and they can handle wind with the best of the trainers. I've seen people start on Eagle 2s and GP trainers, but i think the better of the trainers is the Sig LT-40, GP PT 60. As far as ARFs go, the NextsStar, Avistar, SuperStar, and a LT40 ARF are the way to go. And to keep things ease, I just look at [link=http://www.towerhobbies.com/]Tower Hobbies[/link] to get an idea of pricing. Then I like to run down to my LHS and pay the extra $20 to keep them in business for when i do crash. Good luck and happy building! And start a build form and let us see the project!

Thanks everyone for your input. I've decided on the Goldberg Eagle II. My reasoning is that it looks to be a good beginner kit and is the size that will fit in my vehicle when transporting.


Hopefully I'll be able to post a build thread and get some suggestions during the construction.

Whatever trainer you choose, I suggest taking out some dihedral on the wing. My first kit build was a Sig Kadet Mk II 25 years ago, then a GP PT-40 10 years ago. If I had to do it over again (and I did a few months ago with the Hobbistar 60 RTF) I would go with a 60 size trainer for size and stability. Look for posts on this subject. And always, find a club to join and go there and meet them, there are many "old timers" who love to chat and offer suggestions.

Welcome

I fly with a Sig Kadet LT-40. It handels well and is fairly forgiving on the rough landings. A few fly the Alpha 40 or 60. I guess it is all in what you want.

Congrats on your decision. As I said earlier, the Eagle 2 can be powered with a cheap, .40 size bushing engine, but a ball-bearing engine would be a better choice for longevity and it can power your next more sporty model as your flying skills progress. Just stay away from the Towr Hobbies .46. Some may like it, but I just bought one, and I think it's a POS, in my opinion, of course. Wing dihedral is important because it increases stability, and makes the airplane more apt to recover itself from a mistake. But, dihedral reduces a plane's ability to perform certain manuvers. My suggestion would be to build the first wing with the maximum amount of dihedral, then just purchase another wing kit, and build it flat. This will enable you to learn with a very stable-flying airplane, then swap out the wing, and have some fun!!! And, use rubberbands on the wing, not bolts. They let the wing separate during a crash a lot faster and easier.

I just remembered a guy who suddenly showed up at our field with an Eagle 2 kit that he built himself without any help or advice. He did a great job except for not knowing about a heating iron to shrink the covering. It flew well and he learned on that.

I think the best 2 stroke engine for beginners is either the Evolution .45 training power system of the .46NT. They are both very powerful engines that are forgiving and don't load up the crankcases. They have great prices and are quality made. Hard chrome liners. You can have these engines way out of tune and they still run well without deadsticks. The .45 is powerful with the counter weight removed and with an APC 11x7 prop.

I don't know about taking all dihedral out of a Clark Y type of flat bottomed airfoil. I can see where a lot of them have excessive dihedral, but a little bit will always be needed for that airfoil on a trainer.

I favor the Eagle II.............more options!

There has been some discussion at the field about starting new flyers on something a little more advanced, such as a Goldberg Tiger. The advantage here is that the new pilot learns right away how things work..... The planes people want to fly don't self-recover...they go where you point them. Properly set up, the Tiger makes a pretty good trainer! I taught my friend how to fly on a GP Ugly Stick (heck, I learned how to fly on an Ugly Stick) the Tiger isn't any harder to fly than one of those! Another obvious advantage is that after the training is over,a Tiger makes a great sport plane with the throws set high....Something to think about....Johnny

well, just saw this today.

My first trainer was a Telemaster 40 with an old OS .60fp

it was set up for tricycle gear, and could be adapted to tail drager with another set of front gear.

take offs were a majestic 6 ft, straight up to about 100ft and then, when my teacher said i could, I got to fly it.

I liked it because you had a 6ft wingspan so you could see your plane as she is fluttering about.

She has beeen stuck in the hanger for about 4 years now, and will be taking her out in the fall to teach my son in law how to fly.

If you start as a tricycle gear first, and get comfortable taking off and landing with that, then you switch to tail dragger mode for about a month or two, and then make the leap into something like a four star 60 or a tiger 60

She is butt ugly after having the wings fold during a cuban eight, but now she takes off in 10-12 feet and only goes striaght up for about 50 ft. (added about 8 oz of wood and epoxy to rebuild her.

she is very easy to see, fly and maneuver. she even does nice rolls and loops, although knife edges are a little hairy.

for what it's worth,

Dave