Dirtnaper

My Feedback: (11)

first off I travel extensively through Asia. Last summer going through I had a vision this was going to happen. People over here have been farming out their ARF assembly lines overseas. Its just a matter of time they figure out "why to we need a middle man when we have the internet"

Nice ARF though. Pick your favorite arf and do some searching and you can buy direct now LoL

I dont know if this is sad or funny.



Check this out.

http://cgi.ebay.com/27-ULTIMATE-DL50...QQcmdZViewItem

tailskid

My Feedback: (34)

Wow! Not that I like the airplane that much, but I do love the PRICE including shipping!!!

Dirtnaper

My Feedback: (11)

Thats not just the plane, thats the engine too.

Oh yeah and the shipping


The engine looks to be a direct copy of the DA50. I hope its better than the first lot of DA50's. I sold mine. However the new one are pretty nice and run better.

aussiesteve

I have a Yak over here with the DL50 in it
Power wise, It's every bit as good as my DA 50's that I have in Oz. It's not as highly polished to look at and only time will tell how long it will last (I've only had it a few weeks). It's a pretty good engine for the price - certainly better than the G45 I used to have.

Dirtnaper

My Feedback: (11)

Well, I can say this. I fly for a cargo airlines (will not say who) and I see a BUNCH of shipments of cylinder heads, cases, etc, of popular engines coming out of China. I guess they come over here for final assembly and milling. I wish I could drop some names but I would probably be kicked off this site for good. Im sure I may be violating company policy as well. The point is you may think you have a copy when in actuality you have an original because they both come from the same tooling.

Normally all the ARF's and engines come over in a container on a ship but every now and then they have to be sent by air. When someone buys an ARF from China, Singapore, Laos, Thailand, Taiwan, etc direct form the builder those almost always come by air. I can say this, the volume of the direct purchases has been going WAY up. I had no idea they were getting this affordable.

Kmot

My Feedback: (24)

Man, I would love to have that inside information.

SunShyne

My Feedback: (68)

its a matter of time, the market is getting saturated so that ends up having a side effect of lower prices for us~! You wont hear me complain

aussiesteve

Not only are the prices dropping but the quality is generally improving as well.

It wasn't that long ago that we wouldn't dream of buying some of the Asian made brands that we now hear so many people rave about. Look at the modern versus the older SC/ASP/Magnum engines as an example.

Living here, mixing with the locals and therefore having access to some of the really cheap items, I take the risk and try them (I can get a complete 90 sized plane built and airborne for around $300 - including 4 stroke Motor, locally made digital servos and paying someone to build it for me).

I can tell you that some of the local products here are just as good as some of the long standing top brands such as Futaba, HiTec, JR, Saito OS etc. They may not be as long lasting (only time will tell us that) but I've yet to have an in flight failure of anything. Yes I am a little choosy as to what of the local items I choose, I only purchase the stuff that appears to be of better quality and I have not yet compromised on TX's or RX's (I use all JR here for that) but the quality is there if you look.

I have also seen a couple of factories here that are manufacturing ARF's. In one of them was a whole bunch of boxes for a very well known company that has many convinced that their products are 100% US made!!

I am actually so impressed with the quality of some of the products that I have my sons setting up a small web based business to bring some of these items to our home country. I doubt it will make a lot of money but it will offset their high modelling costs.

tailskid

My Feedback: (34)

Now there are TWO of us wanting information from TWO different sources!!! USA MADE eh? Hummmmmm

Mr67Stang

"Just a matter of time. ARFs getting real cheap"

Nice thread title. I am currently ARFrustrated. I have several arfs and two of which right now are down for glue joint failures. My H9 FuntanaX 100 just decided to see what it would be like to have retractable landing gear after I had landed and started to taxi back in. Those pretty wheel pants poked two nice holes in each wing half. My H9 Spitfire decided that it's fire wall did not have enough variable right thrust in it and detached itself on the left side. Both were clean breaks at the glue joint. Remember. "If it sounds to good to be true... it probably is." I'm not saying, DONT BUY ARF's. Just if you don't go through them, it's your fault because you got what you paid for.

Don M.

My Feedback: (5)

The thought that keeps coming to me is how many of these "individual" orders ( mainly ARF planes ) are going to arrive at our door damaged and what kind of logistic nightmare are we going to have to wade through in order to get compensation for these damaged parcels.

The other thing that keeps rolling around in my head is how many of us will be willing to relocate to Asia when there are no jobs left in America.

Dirtnaper

My Feedback: (11)

I dont know if the Logistics would be any worse honestly. I received an ARF for Christmas from a very well known importer only 4 miles from my house. 6 months after the purchase I had to get my money back. It was a bipe and I couldnt get 2 correct wings for it. To be honest they guy had little or no control because he was dealing with the manufacture. So the outcome would have been the same either way.

As for as jobs go Im not entirely convinced it will have any effect. They were never made over here anyway. The importers, yeah they will have some loses.

I can totally confirm what aussiesteve is saying. You may think its made here in the states and you may even be willing to pay more thinking that but in reality its not. I would wager most all the cylinder heads and cases and cranks are made in China. The bearings probably out of Taiwan. I read a post not to long ago on the DA50/DL50 and some one said they couldn't do CNC milled cases in China. What a laugh, if they don't, its because they don't want to.

Flyboy76

My Feedback: (14)

I have had several experiences with bringing a product from overseas with no complaints. I ordered a world models super chipmunk from Peak Models in New Zealand. And i have also ordered a Pitts 40 as well. The pitts took about 2 weeks to get here and was in perfect shape. the super chip i ordered it and the same day it got confirmation that it was shipped. They shipped it from China and it was here in 5 days and again in perfect shape. I realize that do to the sheer volume of products being shipped and it doesn't matter from where there will probably be a time that i will recieve a damaged product and i will deal with it at that time. I am saving a significant amount of money by doing this and if i have to deal with a cracked or broken wing i will just suck it up and deal with it.

Flyboy76

anonymouse

I too bought an ARF from Peak Model that was shipped from the factory in China. Five days via Air and Express delivery USPS. Double boxed, wrapped and taped, not a ding. An almost exact copy of the Hangar 9 for 2/3 the price. I buy most of my planes from the local shops becaus of loyalty, but occasionaly can't pass up a real bargain. Job loss, I don't think there is an "American made" ARF on the market. The Chinese and Tiawan Companies will put any label on the box you want. The big name Co.s are more involved with the manufacture and have a say in quality control. Check out Chinamodel.com and see how many co.s there are.

stangevil29

My Feedback: (1)

Do you have a good link to Peak models? I might be interested in a good bargain as well. Thanks in advance.
Stangevil29

Flyboy76

My Feedback: (14)

www.peakmodel.com is the website and just for an example i went through and mocked up a purchase to me in saskatchewan and the price delivered to my door is 231.69 CAD for a Super Chipmunk with Retracts .60 size. If i was to purchase from Airborbe-Models in the US it comes to 215.00 before shipping costs. With shipping it comes to 279.96 USD. So about 315 CAD. For an $85 dollar savings i will order from peakmodel every time.

Flyboy76

stangevil29

My Feedback: (1)

Flyboy,
Thank you very much. I am already making room for that 120 size ultimate. Have to go pick up another O.S. 160 for it.
Stangevil29

Flyboy76

My Feedback: (14)

Ya that is on my list too a little ways down but on my list!!!!

Flyboy76

stangevil29

My Feedback: (1)

Any guess on who the makes those planes? Are they a copy of someone elses product? I see the wings on that ultimate are already glued together. I'm might have to look into it a bit more. I like to beef up my bipes, escpecially since they call for a 1.40 Fc and they sell it with 26cc gasser as a combo. What the heck, well see what happens.
Stangevil29

seanychen

My Feedback: (4)

Thanks the Brits for what they made Hong Kong into: hub of ARF trades!

seanychen

My Feedback: (4)

You don't mean World Models, do you?

TheOldGuy

For me, I want a middle man so I have someone that speaks and has a command of the English language when I have to send back the junk they sell.
A doctor friend I fly with recently came back from Communist China (you do remember they're communist, don't you?) to tell us they pay the workers $7.00 a month...not much incentive for quality control!!
It's tough enough to deal with a U.S. distributor let alone someone in Communist China that knows you can't do a thing about the fact they just screwed you.
WARNING: Nubies, please keep this in mind when you think your going to save a couple cents...you get what you pay for!!

P-51B

My Feedback: (5)

I have a different take.

I think the goal is to produce the arfs at low enough cost that no one builds kits anymore. Then, once all the kit builders lose their skills, they will raise the price on the arfs. People will pay the much higher prices since they won't have the skill to build anymore.

anonymouse

It's a vast conspiracy[] They are trying to make me dumber and lazier than I already am...No easy chore though. I think when the wages are standard at $35.00 an hour for every body every where, no matter what they do, things will be OK.

aussiesteve

Actually, there's a couple of misconceptions there.
The company where I an working employs over 800 people here and the lowest paid (janitors etc) get paid $1000 RMB / Mth - That's around US$130 at the current exchange rate with the weak US dollar. Most people here get between 2500 and 4000 RMB / Mth. (and no we do not include a bowl of rice each day).

We get a lot of products produced here (nothing to do with modelling - before you ask) and the quality is always exactly what we ask for - if we set the standard, they follow it exactly day in/day out, month after month, year after year. When I first worked here a few years ago, we consistently complained about the poor quality of products until we realised that we had never communicated our need.

Would you be prepared to pay the price of an ARF built at western wage prices? I do with some of mine and not with others but I do purchase the cheaper ones through companies with a reputation for having quality built into their specifications.


One thing is sure true though - it will be a long time before places like the US, UK & Australia will be able to compete on the price of the lower paid countries, we just need to use that to our advantage.