daja

It appears the Dynaflite “Piece O’ Cake” kit has been discontinued. [X(] That is sad for those of us who grew up with this motor glider. I was using the wing parts for my Drifter II sailplane builds as they are identical. I have some parts put away so I can copy wing ribs[:@]. I guess this will force me into the 21st century for my soaring addiction. Maybe this will be a good excuse to buy something! What ever I fly it will need it to be simple, easy to fly, has to be a floater and look good in the air. I am more of a lounge chair pilot.

Any one else recently loose there favorite planes to “DISCONTINUED"? [/b][/i][:@]

daja

scaflock

I would say get a Paragon but like the Piece o cake... They're gone.

daja

Dynaflite must be having a bad year. I noticed the Daydream 2M Sailplane has also been discontinued.[X(]
I never flew it, but I have seen that it had some good write ups on it . Guess you cant fly them all.[&:]
I hope the Butterfly will be around for awhile. (another motor glider) Dynaflite doesnt have much else left to sell besides the B.O.T.

daja

BMatthews

I suspect it's more lack of sales than hard times. The electric ARF gliders that are out there are likely kicking the sales into the trash for the PoC and Daydream. A few dozen faithful customers that buy about 2 kits each in a decade isn't enough to maintain production.

papermache

My Feedback: (35)

daja et al,

Great Planes now owns (at least partially) not only Dynaflite, but Goldberg, Hobbico, Top Flite, Tower Hobbies and probably several others I haven't mentioned or don't know about. They have been phasing out kits, especially sailplanes, over the last several years. Last year it was the Spirit 100 and the Daydream. Now it's the Piece O' Cake. The Butterfly will not be far behind.

I guess the whole thing boils down to this: If you want a kit to build, you'd better buy it NOW. With the economy the way it is now, the entire RC market is going to shrink and the bigger companies are going to trim everything that is marginally profitable from their product lines. Unfortunately, a lot of kits fall into that category simply because the marketing emphasis on the ARF has worked and their quality has improved markedly. Kits and building have become more of a "niche" market than anything else, and are likely to remain that way for the foreseeable future.

Great Planes emphasizes ARFs and electrics. Anything else in their product line seems to be in danger. Get 'em while you can.

papermache

squeakalong

My Feedback: (8)

...."Get 'em while you can." Sage advise for the times.

Soft landings.

scaflock

Well at least we've got guys like Ray Hayes at Skybench Aerotech still working to expand their line of sailplanes. Besides their current offerings, Ray will soon be releasing the Ken Bates Merlyn as well as several others. Rays kits are made by builders for builders and are all top quality.

Other companies out there still making sailplane kits include ones like Tom Martin R/C who has a good line of scale planes [link=http://www.tmrcsailplanes.com/]Tom Martin R/C Sailplanes[/link]

MM Glidertech has several planes in their line [link=http://www.mmglidertech.com/index.htm]MM Glidertech[/link]

Stevens AeroModel has the Helium 2-m RES motor glider [link=http://www.stevensaero.com/StevensAero-HeliumMG-2M-RES-Motor-Glider-SAK-HEMG2-p-19699.html]Helium MG[/link]

The only other glider I can think of that Dynaflight is still making is the Talon

Jeff

captjckirk

Thanks for the heads-up, I see the kit is still available. I'm ordering one today. I have two now, one glow and one elec. I think the Butterfly is one of the Greats.

SoarLA45

Another nice plane- the dynaflite Skeeter, has been discontinued on Tower. I wanted to buy one for christmas and to my surprise, tower no longer carries it.

daja

For those who want to continue soaring with either the PoC or the Drifter II and need wing parts for future builds.

I don’t want to flood there order desk with calls, but I just found you can purchase parts if you give the people at Dynaflite the part numbers from the PoC parts list from there website.
Leave your phone number and parts you want and they call you back...
(217) 398-0007.

I ordered 2 sets of wing parts. My 10 year old doesn’t have very much patience even to build, so I know hand carving wing ribs, wont fly.

Some of us die-hards just love these old floaters.
Guess Ill be put'n off buyin that ava

daja

daja

I just recieved my 2 sets of wing parts from Dynaflite. Should hold me for awhile. I would hate to get shot down and not be able to replicate these models. All of the wood parts I recieved were fresh, clean, and most of all STREIGHT.

For your PoC or Drifter II

daja