MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

Again, How many would they sell?

Something you could do is to start a thread asking how many people would buy one. Horizon, Hobbico and the rest monitor these forums daily.

A good example is the Great Planes Ultra Sport. This is a fantastic plane that was discontinued years ago. Ken Isaac contacted GP about bringing it back and their reply was, "If we knew we could sell 300 of them, we would consider doing another production run".

So Ken started a thread:[link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_3631074/tm.htm]New producation run of the Ultra Sport 60!!!!!!!!! [/link]

A year and a half later, Great Planes announced that they were bringing back the US 60, US 40 and a few others.

If you don't think that the thread had anything to do with it, look at this video of Don Anderson (President of Great Planes) at the Toledo show: http://videoserver.rcuniverse.com/rc...ws/852/gpD.wmv

leedees

Here's my thoughts on the new Hangar 9 P-51...


I ordered one.

Luftwaffe Oberst

Now you're talking! It is good that they are attempting to make a more accurate scale aircraft. I'm a very big scale and warbird fan.

Topflight and KMP is a little out of my price range for a scale ARF, so it is very good that H9 is coming out with planes that are more scale… and at a price that most can afford.

Our Club has two mustangs... one is the Topflight P-51ARF and the other one is the kit version. The first thought that came to my head was that I wish I had a Axis plane that was of the same scale and quality so we could do mock dogfights.

I haven't tried a ARF that I could compare with Hanger 9 when it comes to the good quality, although a few companies are close... and then again we pay a lot more money for them and requires much more work.

MinnFlyer the Great Planes .60 Fokker Dr1 sold out a few months after Great Plains pulled the plug on the ARF. I've been writing letters even calling them to come back with it. ( Try to find one still new in the box... can't find one anywhere! )

In my mind they are coming back with it eventually because you can still get the parts from Tower. Many have came back after being discontinued because of demand that results in sales. Putting out the same plane in 4 different scales... in my opinion and I could be wrong, I doubt it is going to do well like the Hanger 9 Fokker or Camel has.

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

So, Start a thread and ask how many people would buy one. If GP sees good numbers, it will come back

Luftwaffe Oberst

Good idea Mike, I'll do just that... for the 109, 190 and the Dr1 as well.

gnirwin

My Feedback: (25)

I just got back from Toledo where I saw the 4 new Horizon planes and here are my impressions. The Toledo is a very attractive plane. It's one of those planes that looks much better in person than in the pictures. I think this plane is going to be very popular, nice, pretty much basic construction. The next plane I looked at was the Saratoga. It was on display with floats attached. I don't know what to think of this one, should be an easy flyer though, not really my type of plane though. The new Funtana was next and I had mixed feelings of it. I have owned both the original 90 and the latter 100x so I feel like I am somewhat of an expert on these planes. The new one at first looks a alot like the originals but closer review shows there are a lot of differences. The cowl is a bit different with a wider front opening. The canopy is attached to the front hatch that lifts off, in fact this is now all one piece reinforced plastic. The wing trailing roots are still a separate piece that appear to be glued to the wings like both of the earlier versions. The covering is new all 1 piece not separate Ultacoats with one color over top of the other, It has an appearance of screen printing. Really different. The way the Funtana was attached to the display wall I didn't get to look inside it so as far as how the construction compares with the earlier planes, we will have to wait and see. The Mustang was the last plane I looked at and I must say It's absolutely beautiful. Hanger 9 did a very nice job on this. It too has the new Ultacoat with the printed graphics but I think it suits this plane much better than the Funtana. No more would you have to worry about the nitro fuel causing the bars and stars and other "stickers" to peel off. The included spinner is very nice and matches the covering good, I was told that it's not painted but more of a plastic coating. also the spinner covers the aluminum back plate, much more scale looking. The retracts are like the ones on the larger mustang, they had a set there to examine. I think they will work very good in this size of a plane. Other items of note are that the antenna snaps on and off and the included rear landing gear doors are shown in an open position, both nice touches. The canopy attaches to the front fuse area which is detachable, much like most giant scale edges and extras, etc. This means you dont have to remove the wings to get to the inside of the plane and speaking of wings they are two piece. Once again this Mustang has a real wow factor, very nice indeed.

Scooterpilot

My Feedback: (5)

gnirwin

Nice review, thanks for taking the time to document your thoughts

nitro wing

My Feedback: (1)

Thanks for posting your seemingly well out thoughts.Its nice to see them offer new stuff again.

LDM

My Feedback: (15)

Gnirwin , thanks again for posting your findings . You got me interested in that P51 , I went to the H9 site and the two most impressive things with this plane to me is that added a ton of detail but it does not appear cartoonish or fake , they did a good job on know what to add and what to omit .
Even the way the cowl is flush with the fuse vs being stuck over the sides like most arfs , this one appears very well designed .
I am hearing rumblings that TopFlight is coming out with a P40 , we know they have there P47 ready to roll , so I think this competition between the two is great we are getting the generation 2 warbirds and that cant be a bad thing !!!!

gnirwin

My Feedback: (25)

I really like the new Top Flite p51 arf and I agree that the competition between Hanger 9 and Top Flite benefits us. Hey another thing I forgot about the Hanger 9 Mustang is the representative that was answering questions about it was saying that because of the way the covering is now that hanger 9 is going to be offering 4 different schemes. It will ship with the current scheme "Cripes A Mighty" but as an option you will be able to order a different scheme that will be a new sheet of Ultacoat to put on the tail and new cowl stickers (the cowl does have stickers).

tailskid

My Feedback: (34)

If you are still at the show.....is Marketing Director Steve Goodrow of Horizon there? Just ask any of the reps and you will find out.

gnirwin

My Feedback: (25)

no, I live a couple hours from Toledo. I just drove over yesterday. All the big personalities appeared to be at Horizons booth, McConville, KIKI etc.

AA5BY

I'm also not locked into Hanger 9 but my two favorite planes are Hanger 9 - an Ultra Stick Lite and a PT-19 120. I'm one of those guys who likes the looks of scale, as long as its a good RC flyer and the PT-19 flies superb. If a Hanger 9 rep is listening and if they are considering a 120 size plane, reintroducing the PT-19 as a great match up to the new small gassers would be a hoot. It is an excellent flier with great knife edge, smooth rolls and is fully lumcevak capable turning out beautiful triple reverse tumbles. Using flapperons it sets up for the prettiest nose up landing glide slopes of any plane I can remember.

I"m also phasing out of glow in preference for small gassers. With glow fuel expensive and the advent of small gassers with electronic ignitions that makes them so easy to start, clean up after and afford the fuel, the PT-19, USL 120 and planes like it in the 120 size are the only planes I'm considering right now. Added to this is that most radio manufactures now have their standard servos strong enough for 120 planes. I'll likely buy a Funtana 120 when my building is caught up. At the moment I'm covering the Ultra Stick Light that suffered major damage when hitting a tree. With it discontinued, it was just too valuable to not rebuild.

gnirwin

My Feedback: (25)

It was also interesting to me that the P51 that Horizon has on display at Toledo has the new Saito 1.20 size gasser engine in it. This might be a nice combo.

nitro wing

My Feedback: (1)

I was hoping for a rerun of GP PE6 Hawk

RedTwilight

Ok here is my take on the New P-51.

To me it seems that they are updating there designs. And if a company wants to make money then why not update what will sell the best first! Then the money made from that product can be used towards developing new and different designs. If you had to choose between the new "scale" version P-51 and the old sport version, which would you take? I foresee the sport version being discontinued in the near future and replaced by this new scale version.
Yes, there are many other companies that offer P-51's. But Horizon had to do what's needed to keep the potential buyers looking at their plane and not the competitors. So I see it as a wise move on their part. Who knows maybe they'll hear the public outcry for something different and come out with something new with the profits of this plane.

Luftwaffe Oberst

I sent them a Poll and from what I've read most people are kind of sick of P-51's, especially when there is hardly a Axis ARF to be able to go against them in mock dogfights. Too much of anything can be bad. It sounds to me that Hanger 9 should have done it right with the design in the first place than to do what they are doing. They're going to loose money doing it the way they did it, meaning they should have pulled the plug on one... before putting out another.

I like to see people fly P-51's, but when I'm in the market of buying a scale Axis plane that won't break the bank... I'm kind of out of luck. That's not right for anybody. JMHO

Gotta go, I'm off to work!

bigbird3

Well, someone said that the Stuka was the ugliest plane ever. I disagree, I would say sinister! it is an awesome plane, but here are my thoughts for what it is worth.
How about twins? Me 262? P-38? Mosquito? DO-335? ME-110? HE-219? Westland Whirlwind? HE-111? I don't mean small either! I mean .60 size! A twin .60 size Mosquito for around $400 bucks? Or maybe a little more. Now, I know these are ambitious products and probably not everyone is going to be interested in all of them but, they can be built with simple construction and many plastic and fiberglass parts. That's what we are headed for. With the inexpensive labor costs, I hesitate to go into that subject very deep but it is what is making this hobby affordable. I really think that more people would pay more if they knew these planes were made in our own country. What do you think?
Someone mentioned sport planes in a thread I read and it seems they have become dirivitives of dirivitives anymore! Most of them have simularities of something that has already been out there for many years. After 44 years in this hobby I have lost my challenge with the 'sport' planes. I have turned to scale for my new challenge. It seems as if they have run out of ideas for new original designs. It would be nice to see more variety out there on the ARF market. I know that ARF's are the quick way and building them yourself is what it is all about to some and I used to be of the same opinion. There are so many different planes out there, scale and sport, that it is easier to get them in ARF form. You can't build a kit of it for what you pay for them and the quality is far better than they have ever been and getting better all of the time. If you have any tallent, it is easy to improve the looks and add some detail to really make them stand out.
They built the PBY in an ARF, why can't we have some of the German WWII flying boats. There is an endless list of possibilities. I think that these forums are a great place and vehicle to launch polls and voting for what the manufactures ought to be putting out from here on. I would be interested in your reply to that statement alone of course along with the twin idea.
That's my two and a half cents.
This is what I mean by spiffing up an ARF. I took the deck out, monocoted the inside and headrest, made my own instrument panel with solder for bezels and javalins on the flying wires, The seat and floor board is balsa with 1/64th cherry and bass laminate. It's a GP Pitts. There is no way I could have built this for the money I paid for it and in the time frame it took to complete it. bird.

Luftwaffe Oberst

Very nice Bigbird3, I love the detail. A little extra work always makes a big difference on how the plane looks doesn't it. I think the Blohm & Voss BV 141 was one of the most ugly planes ever made. But from what I read it was a very stable flyer.

RU4JESUS2 FALCONGTS

I have 8 war birds 6 are mustangs
one I fly at night the best night flyer and second to none (the F22 was the worst MY Fault thought Lights in the wrong place)
I would like to see some AXIS planes also that would fly as good as my mustangs or better
in a price range thats affordable

Then What Size 40 or 60??

Also look at H9 f22 took me and others lots of time to get it to fly correct (to fix you have to shim the engine)as well as other things

Its all in what Sells