Fletch124

My Feedback: (7)

so true because i just built one and it took me 5 hours to get everything right. the motor install meaning.

forestroke

The worst I've had was a generic China-made plane. Hardware didn't fit, spent enough money on additional hardware to buy a WM kit instead and still didn't fly right afterward. I inspect all the hardware first now... before I sink any money in it.

I just finished a TT Lazy Tiger and it was also horrendous. I'm a bit surprised.

This doesn't include the POS ARF I put together for my friend that had "draft" on the instruction sheet and pencil markings all over the place. He bought it from a guy that said the plane was already in stock when he bought the hobby shop 10 years ago!!! Getting the engine in to the fixed wooden cowl was already a 8hr workout!

robert waldo

My Feedback: (1)

KMP P-38.

tIANci

I must be lucky, of all the 12-15 different types of planes from like 4-5 brands, they have been very decent in terms of building and flying.

BigSkyRCFlyer

My Feedback: (36)

LOL Good Post. The worst one I had was a Flite Craft Shadow about 15-20 years ago, when I was just starting out, think it was my third plane. JUNK. ABS fuse, Foam Wing and Tail Feathers. The wing and Stabs were just foam with some stuff like card stock laminating it. Stabs were like Foam-board. You could see the foam at the wing-tips and tips of the H & V Stab. What a joke, anyone else have the pleasure of one? LOL Just a few months ago I put together a Hobbico Super Star trainer for a New guy, now that was a JOKE also. Stick on covering, and he had a rough landing after about 6 flights, and broke the firewall back. I took it home and fixed it for him. When I got inside of the fuse the Tri-stock on one side was just held in by a drip of hot glue, and was doing no good! The other side just fell off when I touched it also. LOL

ICE_MAN

Guess I have been pretty lucky... The worst must have bee my flite craft cessna. What Bigsky said was right about the foam. but I think ill be happy with it... A friend donated a 40 la and 4 channel radio for it and one guy at our club offered to build floats for us so we can fly it off our pond!

blkbird68

My Feedback: (19)

I had one of those pieces of crap!!! I flew mine right up until it self destructed in the air (about 5 or 6 flights). I had a K&B 45 Sportster on it which was barely enough power. I remember thinking that ARF's would never be popular after dealing with that thing! Boy how things have changed.

AJF--2

My Feedback: (119)

Lanier Dart. Everybody should be required to put one of these together, then try to complain about todays ARFs. (PS-- they gave you the glue-- a small bottle of MEK) ABSOLUTLY NOTHING FIT AND THE PLASTIC STARTED CRACKING ON THE FIRST FLIGHT!

mikaelmiki

My Feedback: (8)

The worst type of plane to buy are the foam they are worth nothing the usually come damaged in places u cant see and when you go fly the tare apart.[:@]

nitro wing

My Feedback: (1)

1995.. I dropped serious cash for a Hobbico Ultimate 40 ARF.It was a disgusting mess of plastic and foam board,with ill fitting parts.The thing creaked and groaned as you picked it up to move it.Did not even try to fly it.Somebody gave me 50 cents on the dollar for it..and I felt guilty

optech

My Feedback: (9)

Wow.... Some of the planes you guys are complaining about were/are actually pretty good planes. Must not have alot of experience.

My definition of a worst ARF would be one that not only was impossible to put together but would not fly. I remember in the mid 80's I finally saved a bunch of cash and bought a Lion Models Cap-21 that was sold by Indy R/C. Jeez....... you guys remember those. I think they were the same manufacturer of those Talons. I bought it because I couldn't afford an EZ which were the absolute king of ARF's and was the standard ARFs were compared to for a long, long, time. Sure they were hard to repair but the parts fit, the hardware was good, they looked outstanding, and flew even better. Anyway, I'd built alot of kits by then and remember thinking what a total pile of crap this ARF was. The parts just would not go together square no matter how hard I worked them. I finally got it together but it was very heavy. The second flight I got it into a spin and never could get it out. Everytime I built enough speed to pull out it would secondary stall. I never shed a tear I was so glad to be rid of that thing. It was ALONG time before I bought another ARF. I finally did though and have built plenty since. Laniers, Great Planes, EZs, Royals, TTs, Global, Hobbicos, numerous plain box wrapped generics, etc, etc...... Sure some were worse than others but it was not impossible with a little care and thought to get them together and they actually flew pretty good. None come even close to those crappy Lion's.

Mike

capfo

I agree about the early ARF's but the worst I've seen recently was the ModelTech SU-26 .40. Nothing fit and it flew like garbage. I believe it's out of production now.

LDM

My Feedback: (15)

Back in the dark ages I built a F14 Tamecat , early version of an ARF . Great concept of an F14 but with trainer features and designed by a very competant Jeff Troy .Problem was the plane was 1) a brick , 2) poor interior wood on foam was really not strong enoght to hold the servoes , 3)warped tail servaces and wood inserts on all flying servaces 4)very long push rods with no design or plan for support .The plane was made for 45 to 60 size engines. After learning to fly and crash many planes LOL , I revisited this plane (that I had moth balled ).
I added all carbon fiber pushrods, dubro HD linlage , trued up all flying servaces , sealed all surfaces with tape , reinforced all interior wood/servo mounts , got rid of the crappy plastic cowl , hand carved a streamliined cowl , turned the new os90 sideways with a pitts muffler , added a oleo strut to the nose gear and finally added two servos to the airlerons so I could have flap/airlerons because this plane was heavy based on original wood and foam used .
Now I have a very cool F14 tamecat that pretty fast with nice jet looks in the air

Fastsky

The worst for me is one that I am still working on, the Modeltech P47. The tail wheel assembly and the clevices look like they are made from very old, yellow, brittle material. The tail wheel is upposed to be held in place by 4 bolts going into blind nuts. The blind nuts are too far apart to get all 4 bolts in there so you have the choice of using the top 2 or the bottom 2. It doesn't matter anyway because the assembly is so brittle. When I attached the wheel to the control rod and pulled on it to straighten the wheel and position the rod in the servo arm, the nylon assembly shattered into little pieces! Another problem, the engine mount, looks like its made of soft plastic, so soft that the engine will tilt up and down when you move the throttle!! Model looks well built otherwise. [8D]

Deadeye

For $45, I'll keep one in my hangar. I love this plane, even though it takes about as long as a kit to put together. I've had two, and my second one has 100+ flights on it. SCREAMS with a TT 61 w/ modified exhaust. I scratch built the tail feathers. As far as the plastic breaking, yeah..it cracks...one of these times I'm going to do a snap roll and the tail is going to say buh bye.

I was wondering when Flite Craft was going to show up. 15-20 years ago, that's about all my brother flew. He had them all: Solo1, Cardinal, Arrow, Shadow. He got out the Shadow last year after not flying it for 15 years. The plastic CRUMBLED whenever it was touched. Not much left of it now!

SkyStalker

The worst ARF I´ve had is the VQ Zero. The only good stuff about it is the appearance, It looks good but flies bad, has a tendency to tip stall, It is heavy, wood is very poor quality and plastics crack from a 4 stroke vibration. Not enough glue to join parts. It will fall apart in no time.

LDM

My Feedback: (15)

wow my best was a VQ P40

CTDave

My Feedback: (1)

I have not built many but the worst was a great plane tiger moth.I could stick my finger between the firewall and sides not glue on the triangle stock,no holes for or backing for screws to struts and wire anchors,covering coming off and so on.Sent it back they sent another which was not much better.Sent that back and said keep it.

Ken Bryant

My Feedback: (10)

EZ Models P51. THis plane had a minor hit with the ground and I could not repair it because of the wierd covering they used. Total loss and at $300 I feel I got royally screwed!

FWIW, the covering was a foam based cover with a monokote type film over it.

THe plane looked good but just couldn't get a slight amount of damage.

ColoradoR/C

My Feedback: (5)

You aren't kidding. The early Laniers were horrible to build, but the one's I had all flew like a dream. Just this week, I brought my 25-year old Lanier Javelin out of storage and flew it. Man, what a trip. I posted a blog on the whole experience.

Texastbird

Of the newer generation of ARFs I'll put my vote on the Hobbico Spectrum (r.i.p.). I was so fragile something was going to break during every flight. On the very first flight, I greased a beautiful 3 point landing and both landing gears fell out of the wings. Too bad, because it flew beautifully when it was all in one piece. It met its demise when I overshot the runway on a deadstick and it landed in slightly tall grass just off the runway. When I went to retrieve it I was dismayed to find it broken in half just behind the wing and the plastic turtle deck cover had shattered into oblivion. My best bird has been a Hangar 9 .40 size Cap 232. Tough, and flies great--just watch for it to snap just as any Cap is prone to do...

308jockey

AN EZ (I think it was) Challenge. What a POS. It was an '80s pattern plane, an early turnaround 1.20 plane. Nothing fit, it was that foam over some type of brittle hardwood. It looked good in the box but was awful when it was done. It lasted something like 9 flights before it broke in half behind the wing and in it went. It was an expensive kit with some expensive gear on board. I didn't look at another ARF for years. They're much better now.

Rick H.

edgeman55

My Feedback: (25)

BME Cap Maniac.The reason they called it a maniac is because that is what the person putting it together turns into.What junk that plane was.

mrbigg

My Feedback: (21)

Creek Hobbies Staudacher GS 600. Poor hardware, bad fiberglass cowl, covering "supposed to be Econocote".

doctorgo

My Feedback: (5)

The Worst?
KMP Extra. This forum isn't big enough to list every defect. I still keep photos to show and tell.

Next worst: Altech Tamecat (8 years ago). Jeff Greenie and I had words over this one. Aberration, hell! Total Abomination!

The other 42 ARFs were/are great by comparison. Needless to say KMP and Altech are both on my shot list, forever.