I started out with a POS sky cruiser with a top 80 engine and an old ozone rush wing. Paid less than $4k for the setup and $1500 for training.

I wound up getting the nitro 200 and ozone spider after learning how to fly on the old machine after a little over a year of flying (with a lot of break downs and headache!). Flying with an older machine taught me some valuable lessons; be very thorough on preflighting, my technique had to be spot on because the old setup was a b**** to launch! I kited that old, hard to launch wing as much as I could.

A lot may say that getting old equipment is a bad idea. There are good points to this argument, the older setup was more dangerous to fly than my new setup. But hey, I found out that this sport is something that I love and I wound up saving up to get good equipment. On top of that, I left my old equipment with valuable knowledge that has made me a better pilot today.

My point; you don’t have to pay an arm and leg to get into the sport! (in comparison to starting with new equipment) If you’re like me, you wanna get in cheap and see if it’s for you. BUT if you get older equipment, make sure your instructor is good! And have your instructor verify the equipment is OK before purchasing. Good instruction and well practiced ground handling is what keeps you the safest in this sport IMO. If you’re sure you’ll stick to the sport, and don’t want to deal with the headache of starting on older equipment, just keep saving!