No more Hanger 9 products for this hobbyist !
02-19-2014, 02:14 PM
#26
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Maintaining quality can be unexpectedly punishing sometimes. Sig refused a shipment of ARFs a few years ago because of substandard quality. The Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) decided to recoup their losses by dumping the planes on the cheap and selling them to the Nitro Planes/Raidentech group. Not only did Sig not have product to sell to its customers, but RC pilots were going to NitroPlanes.com and buying Kadet ARFs that looked like the genuine article, including Sig's owner's manual, which simply had Sig's name crossed out on the cover.
I talked to a local pilot who bought some of the Nitro Planes Kadets, and he decided that Sig ARFs must be a rip-off since Nitro Planes was able to sell them so much cheaper. His logic made sense to him, and I never could get him to look at it from the other direction.
All Horizon can do when they get a shipment of bad ARFs from an OEM is yell at them, try to get a partial refund for the order, then use the refunded money to provide extra replacement parts and customer service support to folks who bought the bad planes.
02-19-2014, 04:33 PM
#34
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I'm a life-long builder as is the OP. I think it's funny when people say the quality of ARF is getting worse when I saw very few ARFs that I thought were even decent.
I've said many times that back in the day a lot of people hated building and would have bought ARFs if they were available. The only two that I know of back then were MRC and Lanier. The MRC looked pretty good, but Lanier was basically bricks with wings.
The people like me who actually like building are never going to be satisfied with an ARF and I think it's a mistake in the first place for us to buy one. There is very little chance we're going to like it if we're actually skilled builders. For us it's almost always a labor of love - something that no manufacturer is going to share. They aren't hiring model airplane artists to lovingly and painstakingly fit each piece and fasten it in place.
Instead of being angry about it just accept that an ARF will never meet your quality standards and continue to build your own. I wouldn't stop doing business with Hanger 9 because of an ARF. Everyone selling ARF's has the same problem even if you didn't buy one. If your reason is because they sell a poor quality ARF that won't leave you many places to do business with.
I've said many times that back in the day a lot of people hated building and would have bought ARFs if they were available. The only two that I know of back then were MRC and Lanier. The MRC looked pretty good, but Lanier was basically bricks with wings.
The people like me who actually like building are never going to be satisfied with an ARF and I think it's a mistake in the first place for us to buy one. There is very little chance we're going to like it if we're actually skilled builders. For us it's almost always a labor of love - something that no manufacturer is going to share. They aren't hiring model airplane artists to lovingly and painstakingly fit each piece and fasten it in place.
Instead of being angry about it just accept that an ARF will never meet your quality standards and continue to build your own. I wouldn't stop doing business with Hanger 9 because of an ARF. Everyone selling ARF's has the same problem even if you didn't buy one. If your reason is because they sell a poor quality ARF that won't leave you many places to do business with.
02-19-2014, 05:53 PM
#37
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I've had a lot of experience working with Chinese manufacturers at my previous company. You have to keep up the relationship. If you do, they will do almost anything for you ... if you mess up the relationship, they will screw you over in the blink of an eye. Where things usually fall apart is when there is a major quality issue. The standard response from a western customer would be to reject the whole lot and dump it back on their door step. You need to handle it with much more diplomacy and tact, and maybe consider eating some of the cost yourself while helping them overcome the quality problems. Part of the cost of doing business ...
The quality of the ARF that Horizon specified is probably different from what Horizon's OEM partner in China actually supplied. All of the major ARF suppliers have this problem periodically.
Maintaining quality can be unexpectedly punishing sometimes. Sig refused a shipment of ARFs a few years ago because of substandard quality. The Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) decided to recoup their losses by dumping the planes on the cheap and selling them to the Nitro Planes/Raidentech group. Not only did Sig not have product to sell to its customers, but RC pilots were going to NitroPlanes.com and buying Kadet ARFs that looked like the genuine article, including Sig's owner's manual, which simply had Sig's name crossed out on the cover.
I talked to a local pilot who bought some of the Nitro Planes Kadets, and he decided that Sig ARFs must be a rip-off since Nitro Planes was able to sell them so much cheaper. His logic made sense to him, and I never could get him to look at it from the other direction.
All Horizon can do when they get a shipment of bad ARFs from an OEM is yell at them, try to get a partial refund for the order, then use the refunded money to provide extra replacement parts and customer service support to folks who bought the bad planes.
Maintaining quality can be unexpectedly punishing sometimes. Sig refused a shipment of ARFs a few years ago because of substandard quality. The Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) decided to recoup their losses by dumping the planes on the cheap and selling them to the Nitro Planes/Raidentech group. Not only did Sig not have product to sell to its customers, but RC pilots were going to NitroPlanes.com and buying Kadet ARFs that looked like the genuine article, including Sig's owner's manual, which simply had Sig's name crossed out on the cover.
I talked to a local pilot who bought some of the Nitro Planes Kadets, and he decided that Sig ARFs must be a rip-off since Nitro Planes was able to sell them so much cheaper. His logic made sense to him, and I never could get him to look at it from the other direction.
All Horizon can do when they get a shipment of bad ARFs from an OEM is yell at them, try to get a partial refund for the order, then use the refunded money to provide extra replacement parts and customer service support to folks who bought the bad planes.
02-19-2014, 06:22 PM
#38
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Best kits I've ever had... Airtronics... Jensen... Pilot .... many excellent ARFs... in the last few years, Kyosho warbirds, GP Dirty Birdy, H9 Spitfire and Ultra Stik, Aeroworks Yak 54, TF Corsair, TF Texan, Flyzone Hadron, H9 Scimitar, H9 Stryker, GP Ultimate 160, and others. All good, great fliers, good builds, not too heavy, good covering especially the UltraKote. Foamies are great fliers, good paint, arrow straight, dependable electronics. Jeez, I must be lucky. Sorry to hear of the problems others have had. Tower and Horizon have both been great in products, speed of delivery, and replacement parts, needed rarely.
02-19-2014, 09:43 PM
#39
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I BOUGHT 3 ARF, ONE FROM HANGAR 9, 1FROM G.P., & 1 FROM T.B.M.. ALL HAD MINOR ISSUES. WENT BACK TO BUILDING MY OWN. I HAVE BEEN WORKING ON 1 PERTICULAR PLANE NOWN FOR 3yrs. YUP 3yrs. AND HOPE TO SEE IT FINISHED & FLY BEFORE I GET MY OWN SET OF WINGS 
.
.
02-19-2014, 10:47 PM
#40
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I've bought one Hangar 9 ARF, the RV8 -46, and had no issues what so ever! The covering out of the box was perfect, not a single sag or wrinkle, everything fit and went together perfectly, and it's an awesome flying airplane. Now, the company I've relied on for years for their quality, Great Planes, so far is another story for me. I bought the small revolver ARF and spent two weeks (part time) ironing out all the wrinkles in the covering. Haven't started putting the plane together yet, hopefully that'll go better than the covering looked! Point being I guess, just because you got one kit/plane that was bad doesn't necessarily mean they're all bad! Although I do believe they should apply some quality control before they're sent to the distributors.
02-20-2014, 03:47 AM
#44
Best kits I've ever had... Airtronics... Jensen... Pilot .... many excellent ARFs... in the last few years, Kyosho warbirds, GP Dirty Birdy, H9 Spitfire and Ultra Stik, Aeroworks Yak 54, TF Corsair, TF Texan, Flyzone Hadron, H9 Scimitar, H9 Stryker, GP Ultimate 160, and others. All good, great fliers, good builds, not too heavy, good covering especially the UltraKote. Foamies are great fliers, good paint, arrow straight, dependable electronics. Jeez, I must be lucky. Sorry to hear of the problems others have had. Tower and Horizon have both been great in products, speed of delivery, and replacement parts, needed rarely.
02-20-2014, 04:13 AM
#45
02-20-2014, 05:24 AM
#46
Royal were complicated designs, Proctor models were a beauty, but you had to be unemployed to have enough time to finish those things in a reasonable amount of time, Bridi never appealed to me, and Airtronics I do not remember, but I remember Midwest. They had excellent designs and quality... Always loved Balsa USA and still do:-)
Gerry
02-20-2014, 05:27 AM
#47
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Bridi and Airtronics both made kits that were all machine cut - no die-cutting. Just a bunch of already cut parts made from good wood that fit together properly.
02-20-2014, 05:47 AM
#48
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I own 6 Hangar 9 arfs ranging from 40 size to 30cc and never had a issue with any of them as far as plane its self. I did have twice were the parts bag was missing, called up support they sent it out. I keep buying H9 because of the lack of issues.
02-20-2014, 06:15 AM
#49
Dennis