flyingdan

My Feedback: (5)

Wasn't this plane in the recent issue of Radio Control Jet International ? If so was it not involved in a water landing just 3 weeks before Top Gun? Maybe I am wrong but perhaps the wing structure was damaged in that off field landing. According to that article the wing tank and landing gear took the brunt of the forces

Dan

Nige321

it is the jet in the magazine, but the water landing was a different airframe...

rcand

I an very surprised to see this kind of failure in an Airworld kit. Airworld has been known for their quality. I had the Cougar for years and the design and strength is very strong.

gooseF22

Jorge,
I know this is a little belated, but She was so beautiful and graceful in the air.. Im so sorry for your loss.. Even though I flew F-16s, I love the lines of the Miss D HawkerHunter... I hope in the future, you guys will do another one..

Goose..

wayne1965

From what I read you should never have made alterations they are designed that way for a purpose ,I I mean airworld service is ****e but the models are good so think a lesson needs to be learnt

rcjets_63

My Feedback: (4)

I repectfully disagree. I'm currently building an Airworld Gripen (see http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/rc-j...thread-41.html) and have found many issues. While most of the problems (and solutions) I've dealt with in the thread are due to items which are not scale, there have been several related to the aircraft structure. For instance, the wings were a bad miss-fit with the fuselage and I could either have added a massive amount of filler/Bondo to the wings and fuselage or cut out the wing mounting tubes and redo this primary part of the structure. One of the canards had a similar issue and I had to cut out the two bearings and reposition them. To mount the outboard pylons in the scale position I had to partially cut the main spar. In all cases, I took great care to return the model to its original (or better) strength.

Jorge (an excellent builder by all accounts) also made changes to the primary structure but he also added structure to recover the regain the original strength.

Obviously, we bear the responsibility for these modifications, but it should not have been necessary to make the modifications in the first place. The Gripen kit costs $8000 and I would have thought that the quality would have been there. Alas, it wasn't so some modeling (as opposed to assembling as is done with ARF's) was required with a bit of engineering thrown in.

Regards,

Jim

wayne1965

Hi jim
you hit the nail right on the head my friend , I've built the hawk, and the hunter and to say the quality was complete s--t was a understatement, the hunter I had to grind the rudder post the rudder itself the flaps and other parts I paid nearly 6k and I was fuming and I would never ever buy a airworld kit again, I feel airworld has had there day now I never bad mouth no one but the amount you pay for the quality you get and as for after sales we won't even go there because there is no after sales they don't even answer emails after you spent thousands, I can say this with confidence I've built a few jet legend and what with the new generation jetlegend these are as good if not better than airworld and they are half the cost and back up service is fine so again just my opinion airworlds days are long gone there's far better makes out there now with far better service just my opinion from my own experience
Regards and happy landings wayne

rcjets_63

My Feedback: (4)

Greetings Wayne,

I admit to going off on a few rants myself during the building process. However, blood pressure (and other) medications have helped as has simply changing my perspective to regarding these issues as opportunities to overcome challenges, LOL. I am hoping that my efforts will be rewarded with a greater sense of accomplishment when the plane finally takes flight. In the mean time, I try not to ask myself what were they thinking when they were Insert Issue Here.

Regarding Airworld's after sales service, I haven't had the difficulties that you describe. Initially I could not get a response but the US distributor Gotz Vogelsang stepped in and helped. Now I get next day or 2nd day responses. Of course, they also know that this plane is going to the Jet World Masters so that might help :-)

The bottom line is that Airworld planes are definitely builders kits. If you are looking for a plane that you can put together in a short time and where all of the parts fit, go elsewhere. However, they are also big and beautiful, perform well, and have a great presence in the air.

Regards,

Jim

wayne1965

Hi jim
i too like too build in fact I'm more in to balsa bashing than composites if I'm honest, like you say and I will agree 100% they do build in to fine flying models and they do produce models you can't get else where, how ever my argument is and which I stand by the customer of airworld is paying a very high price for a product that should never be riddled with problems, they should put what ever faults there are right in the moulds before selling a model that should be 100% ok for the amount of money you pay, I'm just saying the problems you get with airworld are what you expect from flyeagle reason I know that my friend bought one and sold it again only difference between flyeagle and airworld flyeagle answered emails just my thoughts , my next model was going to be the English electric lightning but now just can't see it unless there's a marked improvement hope yours go well
Regards wayne

rcjets_63

My Feedback: (4)

Wayne,

Agreed. These problems should get fixed but too often manufacturers don't bother. I've built two big F-4 Phantoms for customers and was unpleasantly surprised to find that Skymaster F-4 gear doesn't fit into their own wing. I had to dig their mounts out, grind the crap out of ribs, and replace the plywood mounts. What should have been a 30 minute job of marking and drilling screw holes was a three day adventure. This kit had already been available for years; this wasn't a case of a problem with the production run. A year later I built another and had the same issue. This year I bought a Mibo Tunnan. The servo hatches (2mm ply) fit into beautiful 2mm deep molded pockets in the wing. Mibo then put a layer of carbon fibre (about .5mm thick on the inside of the servo hatches which resulted in them sitting over-flush with the wing surface so the builder now has to 1) live with it (a no-go for a contest bird), 2) sand away the carbon fibre (not a good idea assuming it was put there was a reason in the first place), or 3) skim-coat the wing with filler and lose all the surface detail in the area around the hatches. It would have been very easy for Mibo to change their mold by adding a .5mm thick piece of G-10 to the servo pocket.

Frankly, I suspect that this Gripen will be the last competition scale bird that I build from a kit. I think I'd rather put the effort into building from scratch than fixing the mistakes of others. I just wish the designer bonus hadn't been eliminated at the JWM.

Regards,

Jim