Mighty Mini Explorer vs Full-Sized

[Scottand5sons]

Hi, I've been out of the hobby for a few years but am wanting to start it back up again this summer with my 2 sons, 12 and 16, my nephew also 12 and possibly my 2 brother-in-laws (no experience) and my father (old school experience from way back in the days of gassers and crystal radios). I've been thinking that having a fleet of explorer in the air would be great as they seem to be a good platform for gentle flying and eventually moving on to FPV. We have plenty of room on the family farm to fly, so size isn't a constraint, I'm just curious, which platform would be bet for teaching people to fly on?

 

[Mr NCT]

You can't go wrong with the explorer, large or small. The big advantage of the explorers is the protected prop. The planes I started with were all front prop pullers and almost every flight cost me a prop. Either one has multiple wings you can swap in and out for different types of flying from beginner to aerobatic. My own experience is that the full size is easier to fly and very forgiving, and since you have lots of room you don't need a smaller plane. The full size also has tons of room in the fuselage for electronics - fpv, aura 5 stabilizer, etc.
Just my 🪙🪙

 

[LitterBug]

The FT Tiny trainer was a good plane for me to learn flying LOS. I started out flying FPV drones and planes then slowly transitioned to flying Line Of Site. I mostly flew it as a 3 channel, throttle, rudder, elevator setup but did build the sport wing with ailerons tword the end of it's 10 year life. I crashed/abused the snot out of it, and patched it back together with hot glue numerous times till it just became too flexible and the put it in combat.

 

[Foamforce]

I strongly endorse the mini Explorer. It’s one of flight test, newest designs, and it’s much tougher. It has an octagonal bottom shape on the fuselage and a reinforcement piece of wood or printed material that transfers and nose impact throughout the entire fuselage. I’ve hit the ground multiple times with mine and suffered almost no damage as far as flying. It flies very gently and easily with the standard wing. This is probably their best training plane in my opinion.