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The Tower Hobbies Tower Trainer 60 MKII is a brightly covered, purpose-designed Almost-Ready-to-Fly (ARF) trainer. It is not ready to fly out of the box, but it is almost ready to fly. There is some building and assembly still required before you can head for the flying field.

The Tower Trainer 60 is a big airplane that specifies a glow engine range of 0.45 to 0.61. It has a 69 inch wing span with a generous 880 square inches of wing area to provide plenty of lift for this size of trainer. To stay in theme with other 60-sized airplanes that have already been reviewed in Sport Aviator, a previously-used OS MAX .61 glow review engine was determined to be the best powerplant choice.

Photo 1

The Tower Trainer 60 MKII looks very sporty, with clean lines that would prove to have a “presence” of its own on the flight line. Larger trainers handle better in the air than their smaller, 40-sized counterparts. They also do well in windy conditions and are easier to see when flown far away or at what could be referred to as “trainer altitude.”

This is an airplane that is clearly designed to be a basic trainer. It is a well-proven basic trainer design that has stood the test of time. There was not going to be very much assembly work to do. Even so, a less experienced modeler would be well advised to seek assembly advice. This would be best obtained by joining a Radio Control Flying Club. These clubs are where you will find the more experienced modelers who are most willing to pass on their knowledge and past experiences.

To locate a club in your area, go to http://www.modelaircraft.org/clubmain.asp Each of the 2,800+ clubs sanctioned by the Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) specialize in helping newer pilots get started in the sport.

Kit Contents

Photo 2

Tower Hobbies Tower Trainer 60 MKII comes in a white box with a picture and specifications on the lid. The parts are very well packaged and showed no signs of any shipping damage at all. And this kit was shipped twice via UPS. The box and box lid were used to hold the parts during construction so that none of the “pieces” could disappear”!

A fun practice is to cut the picture out from the box lid and pin it to your workshop wall or above your fireplace, (if you are not yet married!) (Ed Note: or if you don’t want to stay married for much longer!)

 
Photo 3    Photo 4

The construction manual is the first item that you should take out the box (photo 3). It details really good step-by-step instructions with photographs of everything that needs to be done. There is a very good center-section with an exploded diagram of all the parts (photo 4). Each part is tagged with a number that matches the list on the same page. This makes it very easy to identify parts during the actual assembly.

 
Photo 5    Photo 6

The fuselage comes with the holes for the wing dowels and the slots for the tail feathers already cut out. The cockpit window decals are already applied. They add a nice finished touch to the airplane.

 
Photo 7                                 Photo 8

A really nice touch was that the blind-nuts for the engine mount and the steerable nose leg support had already been fitted into the firewall. The engine bay area was already fuel-proofed and ready for the engine mount installation. It was already becoming apparent that a lot of factory prefabrication was done on this airplane. The main landing mounts were also factory installed (photo 8).

 
Photo 9                                 Photo 10

Inside the fuselage the blind-nuts had been factory covered with masking tape to prevent any fuel-proof sealer from clogging the threads. The pushrod guides for the elevator and the rudder were already installed. These two installations alone saved an hour or more of work.

Photo 11

The horizontal stabilizer and the vertical fin are pre-covered and factory trimmed. But they will still need to have the elevator and rudder attached with Mylar hinges.

Photo 12

A large, approximately 12-ounce, fuel tank kit complete with tubing and clunk weight to keep the fuel pick-up line in the fluid during flight attitudes, is also included. This will need to be assembled by the builder.

Photo 13

The wings and the ailerons, elevator and rudder are referred to as “built-up”. This means that they are not just solid planks of balsa wood or foam. They have been made as an open structure out of several pieces of wood and then covered with iron-on film just as if they were being built from a wood kit.

 
Photo 14         Photo 15

The wing-dowels have molded plastic end-caps (photo 14). These caps are held in place with screws. The ends of the dowels were pre-drilled to accommodate the screws and prevent splitting. The enclosed hardware set (photo 15) includes a complete set of hinges (photo 16), control horns, nose gear steering arm.

Photo 16

The spinner, here shown with the included Mylar hinges, uses a plastic backplate and two screws to hold the cone in place. This is the most common type of spinner used in almost all ARF kits.

 
Photo 17         Photo 18

The engine mount (photo 17) will fit most 60-sized two stroke engines available. The engine mount allows for engine movement fore and aft to aid in the setting of the center of gravity.

It is also the primary support for the nose-wheel leg. The main undercarriage is thicker in diameter than the wire used for the nose leg (photo 18). Included are the wheels and the wheel retaining collars.

Photo 19

The wing-spar comes as four individual plywood plates that need to be glued together with epoxy. This makes for a very strong spar. Other items shown in photo 19 are the wing servo-tray and the optional radio equipment tray.

ADDITIONAL EQUIPMENT

To complete the Tower Trainer 60 MKII, some additional equipment needs to be gathered and/or purchased. The radio system you choose does not have to be very complicated or expensive. A simple four-channel radio will more than do the job. For this review, a Futaba 9CAP was used so that the airplane program could be copied over to several other club members’ radios for subsequent test flying. (The reviewer flies a Mode-1 radio meaning that the throttle control is on the right hand transmitter stick while the elevator control is on the left one. Most of the local club members fly Mode-2 where these transmitter controls are reversed).

Probably the most attractive difference between a Ready-To-Fly (RTF) basic trainer and an ARF one is that the pilot gets to choose the radio and powerplant. If desired, a more capable computer radio can be used with more advanced features that will accommodate the pilot’s future growth in the sport. Similarly, the pilot is free to select a more powerful engine that will provide performance advantages over those most commonly included with RTF basic trainers.

This is what was used to complete the model:

-          Futaba 9CAP and FM receiver

-          4 standard S3003 Futaba servos

-          JR switch with charging lead

-          JR 1100 mAh NiMH receiver battery

-          30-minute epoxy resin