Since you only gave me only 2 choices I voted for neither, so there! Hasn't this controversy been beaten to death already? This subject is like Dawn of the Dead. Arf, barf, kit, scratch, bash what ever![:@] If it means so much to you to get an award for your plane then maybe you need to go over to the scale site, the hobby is going where the money is and thats with arfs. Have you noticed that top Flite has now made an arf out of almost all their kits? Better buy them now while you can. I love my arf pt-17 and my arf p-40 they give me something to fly while I build my kit p-47 and my kit pt-19 and repair all my other kits and arfs. Most every guy at our field flys and enjoys their arfs and have been for a while even the old guys who grew up building kits. Most don't last a year or 2 any way and not because they fell apart. Sorry but threads like these just serve to make those entering the hobby feel like they aren't wanted because they haven't paid their dues to the scratch gods.