I'm relatively new to flying, but am comfortable with my Avistar trainer. I am also very comfortable with my Parkzone T28 electric.

I am looking for my next nitro plane. Something that is faster and more manuverable than the Avistar trainer, but nothing crazy. Could be high wing, mid wing or low wing. I would like to stay in the .40 range for cost and size considerations.

Here is a tentative list, but I'm open to your advice and feedback:

- Great Planes Escapade 40
- Hangar 9 Ultra Stick 40
- Hangar 9 Tango 40
- Seagull Nemesis 46

I'd appreciate any advice, input and experience on a second nitro plane. Thanks!

Ultra Sticks are a great deal of fun.

I would add the Pulse and/or the Sig Four Star. In fact the Four Star would likely be top of list for me.

Agreed, Four Star is probably the best step to a low wing, and the Ultra Stick is just a blast... you'll be ready for everything once you wring that one out.

Stiks are fun, why beat around the bush, YAK or Extra....

Much more fun to crash!

Thanks for the input guys. I'm going to check out the Four Star and the Ultra Stick. I kind of like the Ultra Stick because of the "old school" looks.

The Ugly stick style planes are certainly something worth considering. But the Escapade is a pretty good one too for a low wing upgrade.

The Ultra Stick by Hangar 9 will be available at the end of this Month or March. Unless you find one. I just put together a DraStick by Texasrc.com. Nice plane but the hardware supplied blows.

Four Star is the best plane I own, I couldn't live without it...........okay maybe, but it would be hard.

The Escapade is tons of fun and a good flyer. it will do everything a stick plane will do and is better looking. the 40 size is great but the 60 size one is better.

The pulse line up is good too
A Goldberg sky tiger as well

I agree with others above, a low-wing trainer, such as the Four Star, would be the way to go

My second plane was the Pulse 125 with a DLE 20 gasser. It's a blast to fly.

If you're confident in your abilities then I suggest a Stinger II from great planes. It has a very light wing loading and if you're looking for an agile aerobatic airframe that doesn't have any bad tendencies then it's the right one for you. I have a 46AX on mine with an 11x6 and it will hover on calm days. I also built mine very light, weighs in at 5lbs on the dot.

I've flown the Escapade and it requires a decent amount of speed for landing and the landing gear liked to come off on rough strips. The canopy also isn't the best as I had to use rubber bands to keep it on.

The Pulse is a fun plane but it's not a fast one, you can over speed the tail on them easily. At least in my opinion it's easy to over speed them. When this happens the tail starts to flutter bad. Other than that it's built like a tank.

The Ultra Stick is one fine plane, it can do tricks fast or slow. I would say it's good for a lazy day of aerobatics because it's so forgiving.

The Tango is made for 3D, so if that's what you want then I suggest the Twist because it can do it better.

The seagull Nemesis looks fun and racy, and it is just that. It's mainly designed for fast flying and will tip stall easy if you don't keep your speed up. This is NOT a good second plane at all.

Originally Posted by F16DCC

...The Pulse is a fun plane but it's not a fast one, you can over speed the tail on them easily. At least in my opinion it's easy to over speed them. When this happens the tail starts to flutter bad. Other than that it's built like a tank..

I did a lot of research before I built my Pulse. The originals were built with a lightweight joiner between the two ailerons. Mine is a revised version with a thicker joiner:



I upgraded the control rods from 2-56 to 4-40. I mounted a second horn on the other elevator and originally planned to join a pair of push rods from the elevator servo:



In the end, though, I went with dual external elevator servos...



... and a pull/pull rudder:



Nearly 8 hours on it including tons of IMAC practice and one competition and everything has held up extremely well.

All design changes aside, I've heard no reports of elevator flutter since the thicker joiner was introduced.

I asked the same question on here several years ago. The World models Skyraider Mach 2 was highly recommended back in those days. I crashed the first one,but my second one is at least 5 years old,and refuses to die. I have really abused it,and it not only taught me how to fly. It also taught me how to repair things. I had to recover it after the second season or so. But they fly very well.
http://ecsvr.com/abm/shopexd.asp?id=3257
You can probably find them cheaper in plain colors if you do some googling.

Fred