Looking at all the threads about Skymaster quality control, design, and manufacturing issues, i had though that these were mostly confined to the "discount" arfs originating with that company .. Unfortunately these problems also plague the $5K plus large jets as well ... I'm not making this post to bash anyone, but its only fair that potential buyers, as well as current owners are aware of the issues so they can be sure to inspect an review every single bit of these planes for problems. A month ago i took delivery on a MB339 arf+ pro plane .. first impression: wow, gorgeous plane with amazing detail ... but it has some serious structural problems which would result in loss of aircraft and worse yet, someone getting hurt with 50 lbs of jet departing from the sky in pieces
.. here's the problems i had ..
- the tubes in the wings were so poorly laid up that most of the tube was just unsaturated glass cloth!! I could put my finger through it if i want to. The rest where there is epoxy/resin, is such a bad quality that its still gunky and gummy. I actually could not get the wing tube out at first because of this. It came out looking like it had bubble gum stuck all over it. On one wing, there was a rib shoved through the wing tube receptacle with globs of glue all over it .. i could not even get the wing tube all the way in on that one. With the wings, therre is no way to fix this, and i am waiting on a new pair of wings ... So a $5k arf that for a month i have no wings for, and not i have to wait at least another month before replacements are ready (that means2 - 3 months Chinese time )
- Fuselage formers: Most of the fuselage formers (besides the ones that join the two fuse halves) were so poorly glued with such bad glue, that most of them popped easily off by hand. This includes the engine mount rail structure which came apart with probably 1/2 the force that an engine would actual put out and place across these areas
.. At least these are all things that i can fix ..
- canopy glass all over was poorly glued with smears all over it ... hey, for $5k i expect clean clear canopy glass ... my 9 year old could do a cleaner neater glue job.
- with very slight pressure, all the leading edges on the wings "popped" ... this means they could have blown apart in flight ... i assume however this is a potentially bad area on most planes and have my methods of resolving and reinforcing anyway ... (1/8" hole under wing side, spray in some water .. wait a min, and pour in some "gorilla glue" letting it settle to the LE ... rock solid and will never let go) .. I will do this on the replacement wings ...
- the wing tube is poorly glued to the fuselage and the area actually transferring the loads to it from the fuse is very very small .. definite reinforcement and added structure will be needed here...
- on elevators, the live hinging tears and would not have lasted very long. I reinforced this with additional hinge strips from the inner joint. I will use added pannel screws and inner ply tabs to further secure these. I will probably do the same on ailerons and flaps, as they will likely develop the same problem ... i do wish these were not live-hinged .. its not scale looking this way either (but that's just a personal preference ... )
I do have to say Jeff at RCI has been nothing but super helpful, and i feel bad he gets to be stuck in the middle in these situations. I think SM needs to focus on customer service and quality with their existing planes before they keep trying to flood more new ones on the market. In retrospect, had i known there were such issues with SM planes (on the larget models) i would have probably gone the FeiBao route and just modified/reinforced the plane as i have to do on the SM one anyway ... would have been over $1K cheaper too
I wonder if other companies SM manufactures parts for are also affected by these QC issues
for for what its worth, please do check every part possible on your planes, especially that hard to see or get to areas. With some things like wing retention tabs, wing mounts, engine mounts, hinges etc, this could mean losing your plane or someone getting hurt ..
~V~