CKreef, you couldn't be more right about the time factor and that's why alot of people do get the RTF/ARF's. However, there is no
way to qauntify that. This was strictly a look at cost - $$. Not whether or not you have a basement, garage or lot's of free time.
Rmaddy, Idon't think it's irrelavant to most people. I hear all the time on this board and at the flying field how much cheaper
RTF or ARF's is versus kit building is. Clearly it's not when you look from the standpoint of what comes out of your wallet.
Like someone else said, this is a hobby, "hourly rate" as nothing to do with it. If we could factor that, Bill Gates couldn't support
some of the people on here.
Of course this is a personal choice for many reasons.
Just trying to clear up a misconcepetion of cost here. About the ARF's. I'll take a look but off the bat it would appear to cost even
more since they rarely come with a radio.
ORIGINAL: ckreef
I think the main issue missing is "How much do you value your time?? How much free time do you have??"
Another item missing is ARF's, which is sort of 1/2 way between RTF and kit.
A RTF is one evening at the most then fly the next day.
A ARF is maybe one week of evenings.
A kit is multiple months of evenings at the very least.
I have gone all three ways (RTF, ARF and kit). Kit building is not for everyone and at the current cost of ARF's/RTF's, a kit build really doesn't save you any money. There are good ARF's/RTF's and there are bad, there are also mistakes made during a kit build (especially for new builders). Kit building has a huge degree of satisfaction but if you screw up and crash and burn on maiden then you watched 3 months of time go down the drain.
P.S. - As a disclaimer I am currently helping my son (12 years old) kit build a small plane but my next personal project is a ARF electric converted to glow.