Not happy with Great Planes
 

As you all know in other thread I posted, I had problems with a great planes ARF. I sent it back, they sent me a new one, had damage, sent my a new one again. I start assembling this plane because it looks good, but when I install the stabs and elevators, there a 4-40 bolt that goes into a T nut in the fuse. What do ya know, theres no T nut. Theres now way to reach back and glue a T nut in, its just too cramped.

So, this is the 3RD ARF from them, and still having problems. I could be flying right now, but now I have to send it back, and wait for a new one. I told GP if this has damage also, they can have the busted airplane, and I'll take my money and business elsewhere. I'm tired of having to send stuff back, to just get broken stuff in return.

I'm very angry with them.

Jason

RE: Not happy with Great Planes
 

You gotta wonder why there is not quality control these days. We pay the prices that the vendors put on the products and yet have to work on them to get them going....makes absolutely no sense at all. When I coming up you NEVER sold a faulty product to anyone. If you did, you went immediately and made it right no matter what it cost you. My Grandma would say, "You go straight over there and make that right before night comes."

These days folks tell me to expect to do additional work on ARFs when they come in. Personally, I expect to get what I pay for! I bought a Hangar 9 plane some time back and the hardware was total crap. I had to put aftermarket axles in the plane and different control rods. It certainly makes you angry.

Hopefully you will get a good one on the next go 'round.

RE: Not happy with Great Planes
 

Jason, unfortunately these events occur. i am sure you will receive many replys. mine would involve a length of thin c/l wire or flying wire.a 4-40coupling sleeve or thread with a small hole drilled
through it in a lathe , a small dura collar in the middle of the wire, then the 4-40 blind nut screwed onto the thread , pull the blind nut etc. through the stab hole from inside ,then tighten up from abovewith nut and washer. if the blind nut is thicker than the former it is being inserted into use washers larger than the blind nut to allow full insertion , when satisfied pull the wire out and remove the threaded mandrel.remove ay exces blind nutto allow the stab to fit flush it may be helpful to clean the thread before with a 4-40 die, small slow epoxy on the blind nut before pulling up. a small drill may be used to undo the mandrel in the right direction. a tool called an"ezy-out should be available in the U.S. #$@*&^$#%, now i have done the swearing for you-go to it.

" necessity is the mother of invention"

RE: Not happy with Great Planes
 

It looks like they are trying to keep you happy and work to resolve the problems. On these ARFs you will find that you may have to work on them some but they are still a lot less effort than a kit build. Great Planes is a great company and they are showing it by trying to satisfy your concerns.

RE: Not happy with Great Planes
 

Stick the pointy tip of a 12" Nylon cable tie through the hole, thread the t-nut on the end, and then pull the cable tie back out the hole. 

You can snake it around most bulkheads.

RE: Not happy with Great Planes
 

As others have described this is a five minute fix job. Should you have to do it? No, but it gets done and you in the air.

Items damaged in transit are not uncommon and shipping errors are human. I once ordered a $800.00 33% ARF only to receive a small electric Cub. Tower rectified the error immediately while searching for the original.

Crap happens to the best of vendors and they are the best.

Fix it and go fly.

RE: Not happy with Great Planes
 

I agree with every ones opinion on this matter. Buying a ARF is a hit or miss, and I've had more of a miss than a hit. But what has happened is I've gotten so used to getting bad ARF aircraft, I've gotten pretty good at repairs and naturally stocked up on the quality hardware on my own.

I can't prove that Hanger 9 has cheapened their hardware for these ARF aircraft, all mine were good enough to use. But I did notice that some Seagull models have. I guess it's so they can make it cheaper to build and keep it at high cost. I guess they expect us to know how to build, so they pass it through Quality Control anyway.

Unless there's a ARF out there that I really want, then it's worth the effort to do what ever I can to make it nice and flight worthy. Other than that, if quality keeps going down hill- I plan on just building kits and from scratch for now on.


Why I say this is because I can do a better job than the Chinese. But for the new pilot and builder, some of these ARF aircraft can be down right scary to assemble.


But your right. When I spend $400- $1,000 on a ARF, I expect it to be perfect to assemble with little or no issues. I hate throwing my money into the wind in hopes I have a good product. I too expect quality, but I think this will be a thing of the past if people don't contact the companies and complain when they get something that's bad. I also wouldn't be shocked if the companies design it this way so they can try to sell us more stuff.

Every time I call Tower, they are always trying to cram extra stuff to sell me on the phone when I make a order. I'm quick now to tell them I want nothing other than what I'm ordering. Sometimes it shuts them up.


Pete

RE: Not happy with Great Planes
 

+1

RE: Not happy with Great Planes
 

If the T-nut is to mount the Horizontal stab, just glue it on. I had to do that on my sons Falcon Trading Co's Midwest Aerostar 40. The original used 2 screws to bolt on the stab. I used the one that worked to hold in place, checked alignment and glued the stab in place. You know, just like the old days. It worked great and still is. The ideas of the cable for other areas is a good one. I hope you get it going soon. There is nothing worse than lost flight time!!!!

turbo

RE: Not happy with Great Planes
 

I too wouldn't target just GP. This is an industry wide problem and there are good vendors and bad vendors. I would put GP in the good list.

RE: Not happy with Great Planes
 

<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 9pt">I got upset with Great Planes Waco because the hardware was all dumped into one bag and all mixed up together. I felt more like I was building a jigsaw spending literally hours in total looking for the pieces in the pile,than completing an ARF. I am beginning to find that these ARFs should be called no where near ready to fly, because it doesn't take that much longer to assemble wings and a fuselage from a kit, but it does take a long while to fit the plane out, ARF or not. Also with a kit you can fit it out as you go and reach areas that are inaccessible on an ARF. So long as it is a high quality kit and actually has all the parts.</span></div>The hardware quality is getting suspect too and I often have to buy decent stuff instead of using the bits in the bag, which again is making the kit look a reasonable option again.

RE: Not happy with Great Planes
 

Love your story about getting a small electric cub instead of a big ARF, I keep laughing every time I imagine you openning the box and thinking what the?

RE: Not happy with Great Planes
 

When UPS arrived I thought he was kidding when one long, small carton was delivered. The correct invoice for a 1/3 Cap 580 was in the box but a little electric was all that was included. The folks at Tower were puzzled and asked for a couple of days to locate the three cartons the 580 has. No problem.

The called me several days later to say they were shipping a replacement although they still had not found the original. Don't know if they ever did as I heard nothing more about it. A big snafu somewhere but they took care of it quickly on my end.

RE: Not happy with Great Planes
 

Great tip for tight spots!