the first flight was rather gutsy, as I trained a total newbie. After one lap I let him have total control and he flew it to an acceptable landing. After staggering about a bit, he was ready for another go and did the entire flight solo. Two other non-regular CL fliers tackled the model and flew it. No damage!
I still think the trim could be improved with more downthrust and stabilizer angle, but it obviously is survivable as is.
Tim Wescott is developing an affordable timer and everything else is working out to be a reasonable cost intro trainer that our club can sell at our training sessions. We will donate the cost of construction, of course but the out of pocket should allow a reasonable purchase price to those interested. I am hoping for $50, but reasonably sure we can stay under $80 with the total plane, battery, power system and charger. Certainly in line with a '60s Pt-19, fuel, battery system.
I really appreciate Eric Rule of rsmdistribution.com supporting both this project and the ET-1 trainer. Contact him if you want to participate. He is the guy laser cutting all the important parts!
This project is part of the Knights of the Round Circle effort to expose and alert and train kids to the sport of control line flying. Over the last few years we have trained over 500 kids on our ET-1 models. Every once and a while a parent has come to us saying "Where do we go from here?" and we have had no good answer. The ET-2 is our plan. A simple, ready to fly model that can be flown anywhere, and as a total system at a reasonable cost.
I hope this catches on, as I don't see any other programs on the horizon for wide distribution. The efforts of ourselves and others in flight training venues will not generate the interest of kids dragging their friends out to fly.
To do that they need the equivalent of the old Cox models that were available just about in every toy store. We can not achieve this, but there is still some that we can do. The Knights of the Round Circle is supporting this effort!