Rare Bear

[flyingiceberg]

Should I keep it?

I have one I just bought from HH that I still have in the shipping box. I can return it to them and get something else. Just not sure if I should keep it or get something else with the cash. It looks like it has been discontinued and I have never flown anything that fast. I would not be ready to fly this until the spring. ( need to get my confidence up since I crashed my FMS P51 Yellow Tail.) There are a few other Warbirds that I like as well. I would still have to buy some 50c bats. I have been flying for a little over a year. I consider myself an intermediate pilot. I currently have an E-Flite T-28 1.2 , 2 FMS 1400 V8 P51s, FlightlineRC Bearcat, Apprentice and a Pawnee. Any thoughts or suggestions? Maybe one of these. https://www.motionrc.com/collections...7-wingspan-pnp https://www.motionrc.com/collections...nt=30792051212 https://www.motionrc.com/collections...7-wingspan-pnp

[xviper]

I had a Rare Bear and it's fast but not that fast. I say "had" because I stripped it down and got rid of the fuse and wings - story to come. The biggest problem I found with the Rare Bear (and this is mostly me) is I had a lot of trouble finding just the right procedure for throwing it. 2 other guys at my field had one as well and they were better at throwing it than I but both of them don't fly theirs much anymore and both have had mishaps with theirs. My success rate at hand launching was about <50%. The rest of the time, the thing would torque over and piledrive itself into the ground. The times it did get going, it was dodgy for the first few seconds. After a while, I just got tired of it. It stopped being a thrill as I've had faster planes before that were easier to launch.
Whether or not you get rid of yours is purely a personal choice but if you do get rid of it, by far the better of the 3 planes you are thinking of would be the Tigercat. I've had the HK Sea Fury and aside from the lower quality, it became pretty "ordinary" really quickly. There's lots of Spits at my field and almost all of them have terrible ground handling on bumpy surfaces and few are still being flown. They too, start looking fairly "ordinary" after a while. The Tigercat, however, is unique and will hold it's "presence" for a long time to come, just as the FL P-38 is now. But then, the Tigercat is the most expensive.

[OV10]

Hello FlyingIB,
XV had all good points however there is always 2 sides to the pancake. Reading that you have a confidence issue after spankin a single motor smaller and lighter airframe and me not really knowing the cause why, I personally would have some reservation on recommending a twin airframe such as the Tigercat that is probably on the high intermediate to advanced skill level. The time of one year experience is relative. Usually the average pilot doesn't get a lot of flights in during a normal season. Unless you were one of those that was able to obtain several hundred flights in the season, time wise it isn't enough experience. As a flight instructor I see more often than not less than experienced pilots trying to move on to a higher skill level aircraft than they are ready for. Save the money you get back on a return and get some more airtime on your Stangs to build your skill set and confidence before thinking about a 1600 sized twin.
Best regards,

[flyingiceberg]

Hello FlyingIB,
XV had all good points however there is always 2 sides to the pancake. Reading that you have a confidence issue after spankin a single motor smaller and lighter airframe and me not really knowing the cause why, I personally would have some reservation on recommending a twin airframe such as the Tigercat that is probably on the high intermediate to advanced skill level. The time of one year experience is relative. Usually the average pilot doesn't get a lot of flights in during a normal season. Unless you were one of those that was able to obtain several hundred flights in the season, time wise it isn't enough experience. As a flight instructor I see more often than not less than experienced pilots trying to move on to a higher skill level aircraft than they are ready for. Save the money you get back on a return and get some more airtime on your Stangs to build your skill set and confidence before thinking about a 1600 sized twin.
Best regards,

Thanks Charlie.


My crash was do to loss of orientation. I had a partially detached retina fixed about three weeks before the crash. Not sure if that contributed to it or not but my I could not tell that the plane was inverted and when I went up elevator it went down. Good bye Yellow tail. It took about 65 flight before I got signed off at out field. I probably have about 200 flights under my belt since I started in July of 2015. I learned on the clubs Apprentice without SAFE.

[OV10]

FIB,
Since you are vested with a club that has a sign off training program, I would ask one of the instructors or a senior skilled pilot that you have faith in about giving you an opinion on where your skills are for you to be moving on to more advanced airplanes such as twins. Twins, they have a whole different angle to deal with like inadvertent what if's that can arise such as differential thrust or one engine out which can be just another factor to deal with besides orientation, etc, etc. But once you finally get to them with confidence, "Twins are 2X the Fun" !!

[xviper]

Charlie, you are quite right about the high intermediate pilot thing regarding the F7F. I just had to take his word for it when he said he is an intermediate pilot. With only 1 year under his belt and that list of planes, I was reluctant to consider him as being intermediate but didn't want to insult him. I consider myself an intermediate and I've been flying planks for 6 years. Being retired, I flew almost every day, including through the winter. I rarely (if at all) crash anymore except for equipment faults. No crashes for a couple of years now, even with new planes.
"Losing orientation" for an intermediate pilot can happen but should be very rare. If you're still crashing enough to shake your confidence, perhaps a reassessment of pilot skill level may be in order. The P-51 and Bearcat should be the most challenging of all those planes in the list. We know the P-51 had a "boo boo". How's the Bearcat? As for what plane of the 3 to choose next, that depends on how accurate the assessment is of the skill classification. We all like to think we're better than we really are.

[flyingiceberg]

Charlie, you are quite right about the high intermediate pilot thing regarding the F7F. I just had to take his word for it when he said he is an intermediate pilot. With only 1 year under his belt and that list of planes, I was reluctant to consider him as being intermediate but didn't want to insult him. I consider myself an intermediate and I've been flying planks for 6 years. Being retired, I flew almost every day, including through the winter. I rarely (if at all) crash anymore except for equipment faults. No crashes for a couple of years now, even with new planes.
"Losing orientation" for an intermediate pilot can happen but should be very rare. If you're still crashing enough to shake your confidence, perhaps a reassessment of pilot skill level may be in order. The P-51 and Bearcat should be the most challenging of all those planes in the list. We know the P-51 had a "boo boo". How's the Bearcat? As for what plane of the 3 to choose next, that depends on how accurate the assessment is of the skill classification. We all like to think we're better than we really are.

OK Maybe I am on the lower end of the intermediate level, but I "lost" the Mustang against the sky and I know I am not the first person that that has happened to. A much more experienced pilot did not fly that day because of visibility. It is not so much my confidence than it is my vision, which has improved since the surgery and the crash. (No more blurred vision in the right eye) Leaning towards sending it back just not quite sure. I will take the weekend to decide. All my other planes that I have flown are fine with the exception of the bent nose wheel on the T-28, which is a know issue with that plane.

[flyingiceberg]

After doing some more reading I think I will return the Rare Bear. My thoughts behind this is that for my flying level, I should probably stick with trying to fly more scale like. I will stick with the Warbirds I have now and work my way up to more speed. I have all the parts to build another Marie with the 650KV motor but I will first learn to master the FMS 1400 V8 P51 Red Tail that is all stock as well as the Bearcat. I can always upgrade the Bearcat for more speed if I feel the need. I am already very comfortable with my Eflite T28 1.2m.

[OV10]

I commend your honest eval of your abilities and the logical approach of what to use to get there to your higher level goals.
Best of luck,

[flyingiceberg]

I commend your honest eval of your abilities and the logical approach of what to use to get there to your higher level goals.
Best of luck,

Thanks for your input, it helped me decide.

[rifleman_btx]

We got a buddy of mine using 6s on the stock system he got it to 133mph

[xviper]

We got a buddy of mine using 6s on the stock system he got it to 133mph

Yup, had mine on 6 cells and by hand held radar gun, it clocked 128mph. Way too fast for me.

[flyingiceberg]

I sent the Rare Bear back. I am going to wait and get the F7F next year!