Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)The NextStar is a good, basic trainer. As with any other trainer, you must have a seasoned pilot helping with the first few flights at least. My instructor immediately rejected the speed flaps and the Automatic Flight Stabilization system. I figured he would, so I didn't even install the flaps or connect the AFS. He's instructed many students using this trainer and finds those two features to be a hindrance rather than a help.
The airplane does need some tweaking by an experienced modeler. For example, the right rudder/right nose gear binds as the nyrod comes through a too-tight hole in the firewall. We had to disconnect it and enlarge the hole with a Dremel tool. No big deal but, since the instructor says they all come that way, it's a mystery why Great Planes continues to manufacture them this way.
Main landing gear system is mickey mouse--snap in system that only works part of the time and is very easy to come loose. Coming loose and falling out in flight is a real possibility.
The other BIG problem: the aircraft always yaws and rolls right on takeoff. Something that they all do, according to the others in the radio control club who've flown them. You have to feed in left rudder and left aileron on V2 or you're likely going to be in trouble.
Overall, a solid trainer and one that my R/C club sees a lot. One evening on Beginner's Night there were five NextStars in the air at one time. However, if I were doing this over, I'd probably go with the HobbiStar .60 because it's a bigger airplane (easier to see), has less dihedral, and has a semi-symmetrical airfoil which gives it many more possibilities.
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Hobbico Nexstar R/C Trainer Airplane w/Flight SimulatorThe Hobbico NexSTAR Select RTF (Ready-to-Fly) .46 Trainer is much more than an airplane. Light-years ahead of any ready-to-fly trainer you ve ever seen, the NexSTAR is an exciting preview of what future trainers will be. It offers the assembly ease and all-in-one completeness that RTFs already include, but goes far beyond to provide an unprecedented range of pilot aids designed and engineered to support first-timer success.Perhaps the most remarkable of these aids is AFS (Active Flight Stabilization ) installed in the NexSTAR s fuselage. Once your NexSTAR is airborne, it senses any change from level flight whether it s due to a wind gust or pilot error and automatically corrects roll and pitch to return the NexSTAR to true horizontal. It s not an automatic pilotas long as you move the sticks, you re in control. But when you don t know what to do, all you have to do is release the sticks and let the AFS come to the rescue!Also included is a CD-ROM and interface cable for the Real Flight simulator, letting you get valuable "stick-time" day or night, rain or shine, at your computer. It s an integral part of the Futaba4YBF radio system and a part of the most amazing trainer ever designed the NexSTAR!
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