Hear my fair warning to the mildly skeptical potential customers - given the circumstances of we who only hold a very high priced piece of paper. (a title)
There is no excuse for a NOW four month "delay", Especially when your distributors are NOW promising a two month turn around on orders placed today.
AGAIN, I would like to ask the huge "Universe" audience if ------------- ANYONE --------------------- has received their 1/3 scale ARF Berkut to date?
A legitimate question since you guys have been taking money for this plane for 6 months.
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Joined: 1/19/2002 From: Anchorage,
AK, USA Status: offline
Plane Geezer,
All kits will be delivered soon. It's been said by me, by Val'a Fusco, and via a press release both here and on the Fusco web site. How many times are enough?
If you have ANY doubts about that, or ANY fear that you are being cheated, you can eliminate your risk immediately and entirely by getting a refund, as offered by Val'a Fusco, and as suggested again by me. With customers like you, who needs enemies?
_____________________________
Mike James RC Design and Building - www.nextcraft.com
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Joined: 4/2/2003 From: GA Status: offline
DOH!! (Smacks forehead with palm of hand) HEHE Yeah, pays to read it all and not skip the first page. Needed more coffee this morning brain was still asleep. That's my excuse and I'm stickin with it.
Posts: 206
Joined: 12/27/2001 From: Salem,
OR, USA Status: offline
Mike, who is in the last two pics of the Berkut? I wish you guys could get a flight video out soon as well.
Since I will not be able to bring this plane to the IMAA Rally of the Giants in June, guess I'll have to plan on debuting it the Quarter Scale Association of America (QSAA) event in Las Vegas this October.
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Joined: 1/19/2002 From: Anchorage,
AK, USA Status: offline
Thanks a lot, Dan!
The guy in the most recently posted Berkut photos is my good friend and flying buddy, Greg Weeks. (You know that somebody is your REAL friend when they'll help you sand fiberglass!) ...I took the photos. Greg is getting into giant scale, and just test-flew his Top Flite Bonanza in the photo I've attached. (It went great.) This plane has flaps, flashing strobes, retracts, scale interior, and a nice automotive PPG finish. He also tinited the windows.
Now bear with me while I whine here for a minute, too, about the Berkut from our point of view.
From the design and manufacturing viewpoint, the Berkut delay really hurt us more than it hurt most customers. (not to diminish their importance) We intended to get this kit out and in the hands of modelers at several spring/early summer events, including one customer who wanted to take one to Top Gun. (Imagine what having the kit at those events could have done for sales!) The thing is, if we had "forced it out the door" prematurely, it would've been much worse, in the long run, than if we irritated a few people, and released a much better kit. Next year, we hope to make ALL the events... Toledo, Scale Masters, Top Gun, various IMAA events, and so on.
First priorities right now, with the changes made in the kit, are the adjustment of some tooling, the manual, the (internal) production manual, and the adjustment of some of the laser-cut parts. Once we're caught up on current orders, which is number one, then several things will be released to the public. Those will include a huge article on the development of the kit, (which will make it obvious why the delays occured) in-flight video, a downloadable (PDF) version of the manual, etc.. It won't be more than a few weeks until all this is public, at most.
And, we've learned from this one... We will not put a "release date" on any future kit, until they are stacked up in boxes in our shop, waiting for the truck. The vast majority of customers have been great, but as you can see on this forum, some are highly sensitive about release times. We're going to adopt the approach of showing the development of each kit, as it happens, in ongoing web site articles, so that any time you want to check on how far along a kit is, all you have to do is check the latest web update. We think that modelers will not only find it interesting and informative, but (for newer modelers and scratch builders especially) it may be instructional, as well.
Again, thanks to all of you who have given us positive feedback and support. We sincerely appreciate it, and will remember who stood with us during this time.
The King Air B200 is coming next!
< Message edited by Mike James -- May 11 2003 3:43AM >
_____________________________
Mike James RC Design and Building - www.nextcraft.com
If anyone is interested in a refund, PM me and maybe we can work out a deal. I will consider the purchase of a pink slip, as long as we can confirm the bill of sale with Fusco and have ownership information transferred.
On that note, if Fusco is willing to sell one more combo at the promo price, I'll gladly add my name to the list.
Forgive me if this post runs long, after this afternoon I have quite a lot of information to relay. Read along if you like, and thanks for your attention.
Before I continue, I would like to reiterate my post above, namely two key words.... "maybe" and "consider". That being said, there is absolutely no reason I should have to "put my money where my mouth is". What is this? A toothpaste commercial?
Plane Geezer, I must respectfully decline your offer in response to my previous post, please accept my apologies.
When I logged on today, I had one PM in my mailbox. This message was from Val'a himself, with a letter of thanks, as well as an offer to purchase the same combination offered to the public back in December. I promptly replied and forwarded him my contact information. Seeing as today is Sunday AND Mother's day, I had expected a reply sometime early next week at best.
A couple of hours went past, and my phone rang. Lo and behold, it was Val'a himself, addressing me by name, presenting me with a friendly "hello" at the same time. Honestly he was the LAST person I would expect to hear from this afternoon. He informed me that the 1/5 Long-Ez kit and 1/3 certification papers will be shipped immediately, and as soon as the Berkut can be completed, it would soon follow. Val'a stated that this would be within the next few weeks. We wrapped up the transaction and proceeded to talk about the status of the project as well as some of the features, for another 20 minutes. Definitely not my impression of a "close the deal" call.
A couple points of interest, which many of you may find interesting:
* Val'a stated that the majority of the 1/3 Berkut's that have currently shipped, are probably not owned by someone who has a presence here on RCU.
* He also said that even though the offer for a full refund has been made time and exponential time again, they have seen very few requests for refunds and the bulk of the orders from December are still in place and will be shipped as soon as they are complete.
* Another fact he mentioned is out of over 200 1/5 Long-Ez kits already shipped, he has heard back from only 5 or 6 owners, and most of that feedback was for technical questions, actually very few return requests.
* As we have all read about previously, he repeated the fact that over the last couple of months there have been many upgrades to the original kits. I'm convinced that this is one situation where waiting is not necessarily a bad situation.
Although I haven't had a financial interest and been on a waiting list since December, I have kept up on the situation and have read many positive and negative aspects to the Fusco deal. I just recently entered the RCU arena, as well as the R/C hobby in general. I came in with the mindset of constructing a scale Rutan aircraft, and was greatly disappointed to find out that I had missed the package offered by Fusco back in December.
What Val'a has done for me today is put together a perfect Win/Win situation. He is able to regain lost business from a cancelled order, and has given me a chance to purchase a quality product at a price that can't be beat, 4 months after the initial deadline. I can hardly explain how excited I am at this moment!
From one RCU advocate to another, if you are currently signed up to receive a 1/3 Berkut from Fusco, hang in there. There was sincere regret in Val'a voice today when he talked about how close many Berkuts are to being delivered, and having to think about someone requesting a refund this late in the game. He assured me the refund offer still stands, but please think twice before tossing in the towel. Drop him a line, shoot him an email. He is an extremely nice individual, who actually took the time out of his personal schedule on a Sunday afternoon, and on Mother's Day to top it off.
Val'a, my spouse has not isolated me to the couch tonight after making the purchase from you; hopefully yours has not given you the boot for taking the time to contact me today!
Thanks again to everyone for reading, and hopefully my post will alleviate some fears and concerns.
Posts: 206
Joined: 12/27/2001 From: Salem,
OR, USA Status: offline
200 shipped??? I hope that is really boxed, picked up by the shipping company and actually shipped. It would be great news. However if it means the 200 have been given a Bill of Lading, sorry, that doesn't mean shipped, only an intent to ship.
Since I have owned certificate #210 since December 7th, arrival at my door step will be the only proof I need. Boy, that sounds cynical but you become a cranky ol' bast*** when you don't get your wants satisfied!!!
I am glad Val'a gave you the "goods" sorta speak. Hope you get certificate at least #211!!!
Dan
< Message edited by danmilo -- May 12 2003 6:12AM >
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All Forums >> RC Airplanes >> ARF or RTF >> 1/3 Long-EZ ARF... Good deal? 
1/3 Long-EZ ARF... Good deal? - 
1/3 Long-EZ ARF... Good deal? - 
That's my excuse and I'm stickin with it. 
