Midstar .40?

[wraith0078]

I'm seriously considering getting my first plane, and a co-worker of mine says he has a Midstar .40 he'll sell me for $100.00, minus the radio.

I've been driving r/c cars for nearly 10 years and have flown a few of my friends' planes, a couple trainers and a p-51.

Considering I've had a bit of experience flying and landing trainers, would this plane be an okay starter for me?

[DaveSawers]

Should be fine for you. Does that $100 include the engine?

[wraith0078]

Yeah. He said that $100.00 would include everything but the radio transmitter and receiver. So I'd get the plane, servos and engine. He said it's got a .46 in it, not a .40

[DaveSawers]

Go for it.

[Viper Pilot]

How much use has it had??? Any major crashes??? Do you have an instructor available???

[wraith0078]

He's had it for a few years, so I would imagine it's seen a bit of use.

No major crashes, a few minor ones. I'll take care of the major crashes myself. :D

Plenty of instructors available. I've noticed you plane guys are a lot nicer than the car guys I'm used to. :rolleyes:

[wraith0078]

I just talked to the guy I'm getting the plane from and he's got it setup as a taildragger....

I'm beginning to wonder if it might not be a bad idea to buy a trainer kit, build it and transfer the electronics and engine out of the Midstar until I'm comfortable with the Trainer. Can you tell I'm terrified to crash it?

I was at the LHS last night and they have a machine with Real Flight G3 on it. Played touch and go on it for nearly an hour and only crashed once using the NextStar. I guess the only way I'll know for sure is to get it up in the air and if I'm uncomfortable with it, hand the radio to someone else and let them land it. I know I shouldn't be worried about crashing a $100.00 plane, but he seems rather fond of it, even though he's getting rid of it.

Oh well... Thanks for letting me ramble.

[Dead Beat]

you can set it back up as a trike. thats not hard to do. or try it as a taildragger there not that bad to takeoff

[Tram]

I'd just get an instructor and fly it tail dragger.. Midstars are often a very over looked - great flying airplane.. I had one, until I flew it through a fence.. :)

[JMott]

Let me give you my .02 worth... alot of people have difficulty taking off a tail dragger.. I've heard all kinds of stuff about how to do it, but one day a guy told me
what to do, because I was having trouble keeping it from going around in circles...
the fix was simple... just put some 'toe-in' to the wheels... have the landing wheels
turned in some towards each other in the front.... fixed it!!!

[wraith0078]

What I've been doing in my simulators, both R/C and 1/1 is wait for the tail to come up and then give it just enough up elevator that the front wheels leave the ground, then go from there.

[fhhuber506771]

The deal is good... but its not a trainer by any means.


Get the airplane/engine/servo deal.

get a Tower Trainer .40 (or similar) and a Tower system 3000 TX+RX deal (or some other radio) move the stuff from the Mid-star to the Tower Trainer... learn to fly... move the stuff back and do aerobatics.

If you want to get a computer radio .. look at a bunch of them and be sure to include the Polks Hobbies Tracker III in what you look at. (If you plan to spend in the $200 range on a radio... you NEED to look at that one)

[wraith0078]

Okay. Got the plane a few days ago...

Sig Midstar .40
OS .40 LA w/10x6 prop
Futaba S3004 servos

Got a JR Quattro lite from uav51 on this website.

Also got a copy of RealFlight G2 and all of its add-ons with the plane.

Went out today to teach me how to fly....

Did fine once I got over the shakes. Pucker factor for the day 8/10. :eek:

We did six flights, I think. My friend/instructor did the take offs, got it up to altitude and handed me the controls. From racing cars and flying the sim, I already knew not to "yank and bank", so no real suprises there.

He had me doing right-hand ovals over the field and got to the point where he told me that if I was comfortable with right turns to go ahead and start some left turns. I went to change my pattern over to left hand turns, and It happened. I don't know if I was getting out of range or what, but the radio glitched and the plane nosed over and headed for the ground. After I wet myself, I thought "great, let's see if we still have control". I pulled back on the stick, expecting nothing, and the plane pulled out of it. As it turns out, my first aerobatic maneuver, unintentionally, was an immelman. Got it headed back in the right direction and continued my circles. All of this happened in about the space of 10 seconds. He was still reaching for the radio and I had it recovered. After that I started throwing in the occasional roll on the "straightaways" of my ovals. Last flight of the day, I was taxiing around on the ground, looked over at him and said, "Which way do I take-off?" His response was, "If you feel like you're ready, that way>". Wasn't the prettiest take off I've ever seen, but I got it in the air and it stayed there. Still didn't have the cajones to land though. I let him do that.

I now understand why they call this an addiction, not a hobby.

Thanks to everyone for your advice. While I didn't follow all of it, it gave me pause and probably kept me from trying to go it alone.

And a special thanks to uav51. He gave me one heck of a deal on the radio when he didn't have to, just because I was new to this.

Having lived in both worlds, I'll say this again: Plane guys are orders of magnitude nicer than car guys. Maybe it's just the competition factor or something, but I met very few people who were willing to help out at the racetrack, and everyone at the air field was willing to help and offered plenty of encouragement. I don't regret getting out of racing. Unfortunately, that just means one less person at the track willing to help a newb... :(

[in2glow1229]

enjoy the plane! if you really like this hobby you will most likely have 4-5 planes in a year or 2, that's what happened to me :D when you start looking for another plane, just ask your fellow club members, there's usually someone trying to sell a plane, and if you know them really well, they might give you a discount ;)

[jetmech05]

love the Midstar I have a 46AX on mine love doing those great big take the whole sky loops....

[SKromfols]

Wraith, glad that you're enjoying our sport, and hope that you continue to progress. If you really miss the excitement of racing, as you gain confidence in flying you might want to look into pylon racing. It's not for everyone, and unlike with cars, when you crash it's usually very unforgiving. You have a great start and it seems like you found a good field and a good instructor, so enjoy the sport and best of luck as you progress.

[wharpoley]

I learned to fly with a 4 star 40 as a tail dragger. Easy as pie, ease into the power slowly and be soft on the rudder, nice easy inputs and she'll do fine. Had a 40 size super decathalon with a 2 cycle 61 in it that was a bear to take off if you gunned the throttle, but was a peach if you eased the throttle up.