2ND Plane?

[ICM]

Trained on Apprentice and I'm now comfortable on expert mode. Ultimate goal is to fly scale with warbirds/edf jets. Looking for a 2nd plane,1400 or more, scale appearance, civil or military, as the next step towards reaching the goal. Any recommendations considering I'm still, at best, a beginner with some experience.

[rifleman_btx]

Get a Cub! Or if you feel adventurous get a eflite T28 the smaller one

[fhhuber]

Cub will fly much like the Apprentice. But taildragger will make takeoff and landing more challenging.

T-28 will be a good next plane because many start with it. Its stable but can perform decent aerobatics. Still a trike gear so you won't need to learn the techniques for takeoff and landing with a taildragger.
There is a wide assortment of T-28's.

I like my Dynam T-28. The one thing to modify is how the battery is held in. The self-stick velcro can easily peel fron the foam. I got som roll double side (hook one side, loop the other) velcro and opked holes each side of the battery into the nosewheel retract bay. Strap so you wrap around foam and the battery with 2 inch overlap and that will positively hold the battery in.
I learned the hard way but got lucky. I ejected the battery (and canopy) in flight, but the prop windmilling kept the radio operating for a landing!

I would recommend the red/white version over the grey because its so much easier to see what the airplane is doing in flight.

Never again will I trust sticky-back velcro to stick to EPO.

Really most of the Dynam 1200-1400 mm wingspan series (3S 2000 mah to 4S 3000 mah LiPo recommended by Dynam) models are modified in ways that make them suitable as second planes.
Less expensive than the Freewing, E-Flite and a few other brands and definitely not perfect, but still very good airplanes, I have a lot of these.

DO NOT GET the Albatross if you are not highly proficient with taildraggers and coordinating rudder with aileron.

[boomer108]

A good second plane is the Freewing Pandora. In the low wing configuration with addition of flaps ( their optional ) you can get a good feel for what you will experience in either tri gear or tail dragger warbird.The difference being its more forgiving than a warbird and a nice flyer to boot. Once you consistently can take off and land the Pandora you should be ready for the next step to a warbird.

[OV10]

Concur with fhhuber on the Dynam T-28.
Stay with the trike gear and get some more aggressive aerobatic abilities under your belt with an airframe that isn't so floaty like the Apprentice is.
Once you've comfortably achieved consistently putting it down where you want and not where it takes you then on to your third plane and it being a tail draggin warbird.
Because you've covered a majority of the novice take-off/landing things, the rudder now is not as intimidating a control issue as it would have been piling all the other control stuff on it too.
Learn the basics well and the transition to warbirds happens much better. ;)

EDIT: Boomer's post beat me by a couple minutes and I had forgot all about the Pandora.
All the same thing's he said. 1st choice the Pandora 2nd choice the Dynam T-28

[Twowingtj]

+1 on the Pandora. My wife started with the HZ Champ and the Pandora was her second plane. A great flyer and very versatile as you can change it around and learn new skills as you advance. She still flys it off and on to this day.

[ICM]

My head tells me the Pandora would be a good second plane; my heart tells me to go with something more scale looking like the FMS Sky Trainer 1400 Cessna, EFlite 1500 Cirrus, Fms 1400 T-28, Eflite 1450 AT-6.

[OV10]

Go with your head...........many a new pilot has gotten their skill set elevated much sooner than expected with the Pandora, you won't regret it.

[fhhuber]

My head tells me the Pandora would be a good second plane; my heart tells me to go with something more scale looking like the FMS Sky Trainer 1400 Cessna, EFlite 1500 Cirrus, Fms 1400 T-28, Eflite 1450 AT-6.

Cessna will be much like your current airplane.

Never seen the E-Flite Cirrus, but would expect it to be a VERY minor step up from the Apprentice. Low wing vs high wing does not make as much difference as you might expect.

AT6 will be more subject to undesired "tip stall" if they haven't purposefully twisted the wings. The way the wings taper is what causes this. (some full scale aircraft have easily measurable twist to the wings, including most single engine Cessnas)

I've never even seen an ad for the Pandora.

[ICM]

fhhuber,

So by process of elimination, can I assume you are recommending the T 28? After reading through much of the EFlite AT6 thread on the "other" forum, it appears that the designer modified the wing to alleviate tip stall. The main complaint seems to be some floatiness and bounce upon landing. It was much easier to select a first plane as most recommended the the Apprentice.

[OV10]

Food for thought......just cause FH has never seen an add for the Pandora(where you been FH LOL) don't discount it.
Just put Pandora in the search block of this forum and you'll get over 500 hits.;)

[ICM]

I'm not discounting Pandora. The size is good and its flexibility unmatched. If it just looked more scale, I would have purchased it by now. Nevertheless it's certainly in my top 3 along with FMS T 28 and EFlite AT 6.

[boomer108]

Hey ICM !
.
. Don't think myself or OV10 are trying to convince you to get the Pandora but don't discount it because it's not very scale. When I got back into rc 6 years back, the top choices then for electric trainers were the Apprentice and Flyzone Sensei. The only reason I went with the Sensei was it had a bolt down wing unlike the rubber band wing on the Apprentice which I always hated from my early days of flying. Some will say that there's not much difference between high wing and low wing plane, but there sure is if it's a low wing warbird. The Pandora is designed to be that plane that gets you into low wing aircraft without the inherent dangers of a low wing warbird. Now I don't know how accomplished you are on the Apprentice you may have no problem with the T-28 or the AT-6 but just give the Pandora some consideration, I don't think you will forget it. Good luck with your decision.

[purduephigam]

Pandora. Sure it's not scale like the T-28, but it's really a great trainer. Whether it's warbirds or jets you want to advance to, this will get you set up. For me, it's EDFs so I have it in a low wing, tricycle configuration to learn from. Keep in mind, I started with a Hawksky, and now am still training with the Pandora, 64mm F86, and the Rebel before I get into the scale jets. After all, what good is scale if you crash and burn it before you're ready. Take it from me, don't rush to scale just yet.

[fhhuber]

Not saying that me not seeing it means anything other than... I don't know anything about that one.

Haven't seen one fly
Haven't seen the box
Haven't seen a picture
Haven't seen a review

No data is no data.

[fhhuber]

Looking it up, the Pandora looks like direct competition for the Flyzone Switch.

With the Switch you pay for 2 airplanes and get one with swappable wing position.

With Pandora you get one plane with swappable wing position for the price of 1.25 airplane.
At least its a better deal than the Flyzone.

[ICM]

Boomer,

I'm certainly no expert, but have progressed to the extent that I regularly fly the Apprentice in expert mode and can handle some wind, do loops, rolls and grease landings with only the occasional bounce. No crashes, but did tick a branch resulting in a small wing dent. I agree with you - I hate the the look of the rubber bands!

[boomer108]

Boomer,

I'm certainly no expert, but have progressed to the extent that I regularly fly the Apprentice in expert mode and can handle some wind, do loops, rolls and grease landings with only the occasional bounce. No crashes, but did tick a branch resulting in a small wing dent. I agree with you - I hate the the look of the rubber bands!

Yea I hate when those trees jump out at you.LOL

[Grossman56]

I'm not discounting Pandora. The size is good and its flexibility unmatched. If it just looked more scale, I would have purchased it by now. Nevertheless it's certainly in my top 3 along with FMS T 28 and EFlite AT 6.

Ahh, my friend, that's what airbrushes were invented for!


You can make them 'look' like anything you want. BTW, if its scale you're looking for, you could do what I did. First plane I ever bought was the FMS Big Beautiful Doll 1400 mm P-51D:P
the my head kicked in and I decided that if I didn't want to line the trash can with former beautiful scale looking airplane pieces, I'd better get some experience with trainers. After flying the HZ SuperCub a dozen times, I hopped into the Pandoras and learned to fly. As a testament to to Pandora, I still fly them today, as well as the Tigercat, Bearcat, Avanti,Tomahawk,Mustang(s) Pitts, Spitfire(s) did I miss anyone!!
Here's a shot at our last fly in before the weather set in last year. The wind was up, so was the Pandora.....

There's my line up with the exception of the Apprentice (but we have one of those too!)

Grossman56

[julinick]

I've flown the Hobbyzone Sportsman S+ now for two years and I can fly it perfectly now. My next plane will be the Freewing Pandora as I too would like to get into warbirds and possible 4 engine prop planes which has fascinated me since I was a kid :). Just waiting for it to maybe go on sale. Hint Hint Motion RC lol...