brucea

Dear Stik-n-Rdr,

I am glad somebody else thinks that the advertised time estimates for completing an ARF are out to lunch! I can build pretty quickly but I generally spend 3x the time as the advertised claims.[&o]

Thanks, Bruce

PointMagu

My Feedback: (11)

I have retracted the post and please accept my apologies...

PM

Stik-n-Rdr

I was being sarcastic with that remark PointMagu. It came up earlier in a post and I thought it was ridiculous also.

russm

been flying for about 7 months. repaired many and built 12. midwest skyhero 40 is the worst. will say more about my experences when my girlfriend types for me.

Stickbuilder

Built? Built? What have you built?

Bill, AMA 4720

bi-planefever

My Feedback: (15)

I can't seem to find your list of ARF's to avoid, but I would like to know about a particular one. I am interested in purchasing a Giant Scale Planes 96" Cap, but I hesitate because of an experiance I had with a 40 size cap. It wasn't a real good ARF, and it did a perfect SNAP when you applied full up elevator. Now I was down the club field Saturday and a member had the Great Planes Cap with the splat markings on it and without suprise his did the same thing. I recognized it right away, and told him to lower his controls but when he flew it the second time, he got it into the same thing, and every time he tried to give it up elevator, it would stall and snap. Needless to say it went in again! But he had an angle on his sholder that day, because all he broke was his prop. I just want to know if anyone out there has build and flown one of them, and how did the handle?
Would appreciate any help.
Gary

russm

RE: ARF'S
Rebuilt 2 Nexstars RTF, and 2 ARF. Good instruction manuel, very well built planes. Fun to fly, especially since I put a 50 SX on it. Poor covering quality. Good factory support.

Rebuilt 1 Hobbico S.S. Select and 2 ARF. Good instruction manuel, average build quality. Nice to fly but underpowered w/40 LA. Good factory support.

Built 1 global RTF Trainer 40. Excellent instruction manuel, good build quality w/excellent cover job. This is my favorite plane to fly w/a 46 FX. Poor factory support.

Rebuilt 1 Hobbico Hobbistar 60 w/65 LA and 2 ARFS. Good instruction manuel, average build quality w/poor covering job. I've had problems w/65 LA from day 1,
w/ many experienced people at field working on it. Last rebuild put a 61 FX in it. Have difficulty flying this plane. Good factory support.
Built 1 Lanier Predator w/46 AX. Poor instruction manuel, but easy to build and excellent cover job. I haven't flown this plane yet, not ready. Good factory support.

Built 1 Midwest Skyhero 40 Trainer. The instruction manuel was in Tawaineese (sp?), build quality over all was poor. Paper thin fusalage sheathing, covering only in main areas
used other main landing gear. Covering was fair until I started to do some clean up w/acetone - trim cover was painted on! Smeared during clean up!!! Put the 65 LA on plane
and covering started to come off during warmup and got worse in flight. Very hard to fly, no factory support available by phone, number listed is disconnected. Due to its markings it looked beautiful in the air. Do not buy this ARF for reasons above.

Built 1 Arizona Dolphin 40 w/a 46 FX in it. Good instr. manuel, excellent cover job, good build quality. This is my first low wing-taildragger, flys a little differently, but very nice.

Built 1 Modeltech Luckystick w/50 SX. Excellent instr. manuel and covering. Good build quality. I haven't flown this one yet.

I'm currently building a Great Planes Little Joni. Good instr. manuel, poor cover job. Just finished wing and I'm missing parts already! This build quality looks average, I am going to OS 91 Surpass w/ a Perry osc. pump in it. It's a beautiful plane and I am looking forward to flying it.

I have a lot of help from the guys at the filed w/ any questions I have regarding this or that. My Dad has been scratch building and flying for 15 years. He doesn't care for the
build quality of ARFs. I call him often w/questions and advice. I also own an extra 300 S Profile w/ a 46 FX, I bought it already built and ready to fly. I also have a Goldberg Extra 330 to build this fall or winter. My biggest problem is in the new radio I bought, a Futabo 9 Cap Super-Synth. For a person still new to all this - it's a handfull to learn. Hope some of this helps somebody!

P.S. Yes, I'm broke

T.W.

Bi-planefever: My 40-size Hangar 9 Funtana was exactly the same as the models you describe. At first thought it was a balance problem, but in the end I learned that I had a bad wing. I wonder if that's what's wrong with the models you mention. You can read how I was helped to fix my problem here:
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_4530826/tm.htm

Tony

bi-planefever

My Feedback: (15)

HI Tony, Thanks for the reply. I fixed my cap that was from VMAR. I thought it was too dangerous to fly so I took all the equiptment out of it and stomped it into the ground and through it in the trash. Weather I fly it or someone else, it was just to dangerous to be in the air.
I think this has gotten out of control hee. This has turned into a VMAR bashing contest!
All I wanted was to talk to someone that has built and flown the Giant Scale Planes 96" CAP. I cna't afford to just go out and spend $500 to $800 dollars for a plane. It's going to kill me to spend about $350 for one they have on sale. That is why I want to know about the CAP.
GOOD? or BAD? It's the ARC, I plane to cover it myself.

T.W.

Thanks for the detail Gary. That 40-size VMAR Cap sure must have been bed - especially after applying your "solution" Sorry, I haven't flown a Giant Scale Planes 96" CAP so cannot advise

Tony

alfredbmor

I would stay away from lanier, tey carry big planes as well as small ones, my personal experiences are with the small ones, for the least to say, awfull kits not any fun to fly them, for sure I can not talk for the big ones wich I never have had, but thinking that is the same company, same people who build the small and larger ones, well, my personal opinion is STAY AWAY FROM LANIER.

ckangaroo70

My Feedback: (51)

It would help readers if you were to specify which small lanier planes you have had and don't like. That way people do not assume that you have owned every small lanier and that every single small Lanier ARF is bad even though that may be your opinion. So, which did you not like?

silent flight

I have only built 3 of the newer ARF's . GP & Hanger 9, No complaints on construction and flying. There are the larger ones with
gassers. But IMO you will probably have to twik any of them just a bit. Built afew lanier many years ago (the spastic plastic) they
flew OK and were no douht the infancy of ARF's but usually litterly fell apart befor the end of the flying season. BTW has anyone
heard of Sky Shark ARF's ? Aquired the Christen Eagle II a short time ago. Still in box, but looks good.
I posted a couple of nights ago asking for some info on the best gas engine If i recall manual says 26 to 35. No replis to the post, so do I assume no ever heard of Sky Shark?

Thanks

LuftwaffeOberst

Everyone knows what I can't stand. I built a few kits and a couple of ARF's and 1 RTF. The only manufacture I can't stand is anything that is related to CMP. A good ARF shouldn't take 6 months to build because of factory defects. I built the GP CMP Focke Wulf, and when I was done my covering was falling off and the paint was chipping.

I had to throw out my hardware and hunt down all the screws. All the measurements were off, and the plane begged to be sanded down and recovered. This plane wasn't worth putting over $1,000 in equipment in, so I enjoyed every minute stomping on it to a million pieces before putting it all in a dumpster.

Also, for those who don't know... CMP doesn't sell spare parts for these planes. So in a nut shell people, I could not fly my CMP plane stock, no matter what I did.


CMP does butcher the Scale lines for the Focke Wulf and some of the other planes. But like what someone had said earlier, buy cheap, and you get cheap. By the time you're done making it look good and flyable, it won't be cheap.

What really burns me is I'm mostly stuck buying Civillian or Allied Warbirds, if you want to build a good quality Scale Axis Warbird... you have to build it as a kit... especially if you don't have money trees growing in your back yard. I bought the CMP because I thought it would be a good project, building a Axis ARF Warbird that would fit my budget.

How wrong was I, it started to cost me more and more, just to make the darn thing flyable. I hate all CMP's, and I will warn people where ever possible. Most Hanger 9, Goldberg and Great Planes is Heaven compared to the CMP as a ARF. Atleast with most ARF's you can use the D@mn hardware if you choose to.


If you look at many of the past forums, you can see that many have the same or different complaints with this company. I should have seen the warning signs... there are no Reviews about CMP anywhere, and no magazine article ever had a write up on these planes as of yet.

Some of you had good luck with CMP's, well... you are a minority.



BREAKING NEWS!!!!

I'm currently talking with Horizon and Hanger 9 about getting some 60 Axis Warbirds out on the market. A Hanger 9 Fokker D-VII or Fokker Dr-1 even sounded good to them, esp when I said it would look good with the Camel. I guess we'll just have to wait until the other new stuff is completed first, but they do have in mind to build ARF Axis Warbirds in the future, I can hardly wait! They won't say exactly what they are going to make next do to stiff competition, however if people say that it sounds good... it means they like the idea. I guess you can only sell so many P-51's, P-47's P-40's, F4-U's, P-38's and F6F's.



Peter Dowling aka Luftwaffe Oberst
AMA District II # 865404
Aero Modelers Club
Pulaski, NY

mobyal

Pretty good thread here. I just found it and'll put in my $0.02 worth.
I've built several ARFS, starting w/ those distributed by Pilot (EZ Flyer?) back in the early 80s. Laser, Chipmunk, Pitts. Liked them. Plus others over the years.
But I have my hands full now w/ a World Models 1/4 scale J-3 Cub. There are some good things. Covering and basic structures are good. But the hardware is essentially useless; I replaced most of it! The engineering -- everything from tank/engine/tail surface/gear/tailwheel/wing and strut mounting to strut assembly -- is just awful. I simply cannot imagine that either the "designer" or distributor has ever tried to put one of these together per the instructions using the hardware provided. And on the subject, the "instructions" consist of a double-sided sheet w/ draweings of structures and arrows drawn to various places on those structures. If you want that size J-3 then IMHO you're better off building from a kit, because you'll know what's under the covering. I can't even begin to estimate the time I have in this thing. Hope to hell it flies well.
Al

PointMagu

My Feedback: (11)

Wouldn't an HE-100 look sweet at the field?

I built an HE-51 years ago and I can still recall my buddies trying to guess what the heck it really was under my, "modifications", lol...

Arado had a great seaplane that would make for a super ARF. I've always wanted to build a Dornier DO-17 for twin .45's. Oh well.

Finishing a Lion Models FW190 and have a Red Star Models Yak-3 waiting it's turn on my table.

I agree that, "If it ain't a warbird it's a target"

PM

Stickbuilder

And to date, you have not built anything. You may have assembled sub assemblies, but until you have actually built something, I personally wish that you would refrain from using that work to describe whatever it is that you have done. Ask your Dad.

Bill, AMA 4720
WACO Brotherhood #1

russm

bill, take a pill. russm

Stickbuilder

Take a pill ???? Get a life.

Bill, AMA 4720
WACO Brotherhood #1

russm

bill, take another pill russm

bobzilla

My Feedback: (63)

can I have a pill?

russm

sure,why not russm

Phil Heller

My Feedback: (9)

mobyal,

I put a World Cub together a few years ago, still have it, still flies great! I am using a Saito 130Twin and am very pleased with the performance. I did replace the hardware (as I do with most ARF's) but the basic structure was sound and all went together very well. I hope yours flies as well.

http://www.quiknet.com/~pheller Check it out!

Phil

Rebellion

My Feedback: (2)

OK guys, this thread was getting way off topic. I have done a bit of cleaning up in order to get it back on track and keep it open. Play nice now.


Dave

Adam G

My Feedback: (17)

I have to say that I have not had a bad experience with an ARF yet. There have been isolated things that needed to be tweaked. I have had to replace some weak control rods, strengthen weak structural points, reinforce firewalls, fuel proof engine compartments, etc. I think this is normal for the discriminating modeler. I am just glad that they offer a nice ARF for $200 so I don't have to spend 100's of hours building. I build one kit per winter, take my time, and enjoy it. I build ARF's the rest of the year.

I think the reason I have had good experiences with ARF's is because I stick with the major brands like Carl Goldberg, Great Planes, and Hanger 9. If you want to get a good ARF cheap, try Hanger 9. I have a .40 and 60 sized Twist that cost $89 and $139, and they are awesome. They went together in about 5 hours, the hardware was really nice right down to the wheels and gas tank, and they are a very sturdy and good flying plane. The goldberg and great planes kit's get a little more pricey, but they are very nice as well.

Don't get me wrong, I have been tempted to buy one of the .60 sized chinese warbirds for $80. I just can't see risking it when I can pick up a Hanger 9 for $209 and get a very nice plane with decent mechanical retracts and a good hardware kit. If there are missing or damaged parts, their customer service will have them to me in a couple of days. I know the quality of the balsa and the build will be decent, and I can reinforce any problem areas I notice. i am planning a Top Flight Gold Edition warbird build with pneumatic retracts for this winter.

So my answer to the question this thread asked is avoid any ARF that is not made by a known and respected company with customer service and parts in the US. Don't be tempted to buy the super cheap direct ship stuff because the $100 dollars you save now, you will spend later in hardware and gas getting to and from the hobby shop.

Adam