Dave Campbell

Hey guys,


This year I had the fortune of moving to Roseville, MI. JM Glascraft is also in Roseville, about 3 miles from my apartment. This past week I saw him (John Fotiu-pronounced Fo-Tee-Yuo) at an indoor fly-in and was invited to his shop.

For those not familiar with JMG, he makes high performance kits for the TD .010, .020, .049 and a few larger sizes. We're talking everything from .010-.049 Reno racers to 1/2A Caudron racers, to F-86's, .10 sized pattern ships, you name it. They are all very, very good looking, and cheap to buy.

JMG has been around for over 30 years and is a wealth of information about small airplanes. Lately he has been converting his designs to electric power, but can still provide them with glow firewalls and instructions. It's best to call him for what he has-the models shown on his site are just the ones converted to electric. I saw a LOT more molds in his basement than what is shown on his site.

Check him out; I've got two of his kits and really like them.

JMGlascraft.com

Dave

LoneRanger

My Feedback: (1)

is there a PR spot open with them? you fill it very nicely!

I realy like the kits a bit on the pricey side but what the heck for a glass fuse and all~


L.R.

Dave Campbell

L.R., not roasting/flaming you, but:

Why would I NOT enthusiasticly support a cottage industry supplier of something as specialized as composite 1/2A airplanes? I don't personally know of anyone who does this other than JMG.

<undirected Rant>

With a fair bit of experience in composite kit manufacture and dealing with the public, it always amazes me that people expect the prices to be lower than inferior performing balsa airplanes that you get from say HOB, Pica, etc. I think people expect that you just slop a little glue, throw the cloth on and parts magically fall out?

When I make a kit (similar in layup, parts etc.) It takes about 2 hours setting up materials and laying the body up, another 2 hours cutting/joining sheeting/spars bagging the wing, another hour cutting the small parts and bending linkages. Then more time boxing and delivering the kit to the USPS. That's 5 hours at least. Then consider that you can only make a body once every 12 hours or so, meaning that you have to be home when the mold is ready-I can't tell you how many times I've had to leave my friends and girlfriend so I could come home early and babysit a mold or cycle the vacuum bagger..

Then take materials costs into account:

Boxes: $3ea.
Copies of 22pg instructions: $2.20ea
Foam cores: $6ea.
Balsa for the wing and tail: $6
Decals: $1.20ea.
Misc hardware for linkages and wingmounts: $7
Glass, Carbon, Kevlar, Glue, PVA mold release, Johnson's paste wax, acid brushes, foam brushes, popsicle sticks, Cabosil, paper towels, Acetone, Alcohol: Probably $10, more if you add up the time it takes to police the stuff up or run out and have to buy them at hobby-shop prices.

So, that's $35.40 of his $109 asking price for a 1/2A Reno Mustang. That means he's only making $14.72 an hour with no benefits while putting the kit together. Composites work is skilled trade-not many people will work for that hourly rate, let alone someone that specializes in it.

Of course this estimate doesn't take into account the numerous emails it takes to answer emails while customers kick tires, need support, call you at 11pm because they live a long ways away from you and don't have any brains, gas money to run all over town buying supplies, the time you invested in making the mold and developing the design, and just the general headache in dealing with grown men that have to have their new toy "RIGHT NOW", credit card in hand as though you have pallets of airplane kits in your livingroom.

Back when I were a more youthful, less enlightened individual, I made an similar comment on the E-flight about some new 'pet rock' that Hobby Lobby was selling. It was a Sp400 aerobatic balsa kit from Graupner and cost $80. This was in the mid 90's when you could get most 1/2A kits in the $35-40 range. One of the list members got pretty irate at me basically saying that that a $30 kit flies like a $30 airplane. Later I found out that this gentleman was selling very well done laser-cut Sp400 warbirds at $80 a pop from his home. I bought one a few years later, made the connection and apologized to him for what I'd said. Long story short, the kit was worth every penny. On a side note, the Graupner kit ended up being a turd, and died a quick death because the $80 just bought the Graupner name..

Producing kits just isn't what you think, unless you have stamping dies or a factory full of Asians slopping glue in sweat shops.

Dave

Dave Campbell

Oh, BTW, I forgot:

When I was over at John's place told him about this forum and that there had been interest in the .010 Micro-Shark kits that I posted pics of. He told me that he was still selling them and that they would cost you guys $65.

My .010 MicroShark kits came with glass fuse, glass belly pan, glass wheel pants, firewall with blind nuts installed in the fuse, and stab slot marked. The parts bag even had a teeny rubber stopper and tubing that turns a nail-polish remover bottle into a miniature sullivan clunk tank! The instructions and plans are very well detailed and even show how to modify the stock prop for better perfomance. You do get a lot for your money!

Dave

Dave Campbell

Here's the fuse next to one of mine. I had the pic in my computer from a long time ago (have had the kits for 3 years or so) for a size comparison:

ryanrink

so whats the website's addy?

Dave Campbell

It's in the first post.