RE: George Miller F-4 Build - also, welcome George!
Yes, I have heard from a couple modelers who are trying to get that YF-22. Something doesn't sound right here either. $450.00 is a giveaway to start with. I have a friend in our club that has one in the box. He keeps talking about starting it, but no sign of that yet. I do know that he won't let go of it for anywhere near $450.00. Another modeler in our club sold his F-8 here on RCU just a while back for a starting price of $600.00 and they were fighting over it. I do have another modeler in our club that has a T-38 in the box. He will not part with it either. I told him to be sure and let me pull a mold off of it if he ever decides to sell it.
I sure had a lot of fun with my YF-22.
To start off, the first time I ever heard of a YF-22 was at the Texas Fan Fly and I was approached by the engineers at General Dynamics to build the Flow Test Model. Then I asked if I would be allowed to make a kit of it and was informed that I could not release my kit until after the YF-22 was introduced at Edwards. But I built my prototype and was flying it at my club site long before the YF-22 was announced to the public.
Had a lot of fun with my fellow modelers every time I brought it out. They all wanted to know what the hell it was, and I would tell them all: "I can't tell you.........".
I had it on the market the same month the real one was announced.
Very shortly after that I brought it to the Fan Fly that the club in Lancaster has every year. Their flying field was on Edwards. There I was approached by two Air Force officers that had these two little American flags that were in the real YF-22 for it's maiden flight and they wanted to know if I wanted to carry them in my YF-22 model. I felt that would have been quite a honor, but I was unable to fit them in the YF-22 in a safe manner.
At the Fan Fly in Mesa, I was buzzing along and throttled back to land and discovered that I had no control of the throttle. (The throttle rod from the servo had broken) I informed the announcer of that and he let everyone know that I was in trouble and would have to stay in the air until it ran out of fuel. I kept circling at the end of the runway until it died and made a perfect dead stick. I was awarded "The Best Flame Out Award" (the landing is in my Video catalog if you want to see it)
Talked to Col. Bob Thacker a while back. A very close friend of mine. At 94 years of age, he is flying one of my YF-22's with a turbine in it.
It is a outstanding model to fly. I am sorry that you were not able to get the YF-22 and put it back on the market.