ORIGINAL: flycatch
It took many years for the quality of ARFs to surpass those of kits but the time has arrived. All ARFs are not equal and they can be classified as; poor,good, better and best. Kits may never vanish completely but the ratio of those sold compared to ARFs is loopsided and the gap will only widen.
After over 40 years in this hobby, I can say that I have seen them crash, and there is no difference when you stall a ARF or a kit built... At our fileld we have a line of trees that from time to time jump, and suck an airplane ot of the air. Trust me when I say, they do not differentiate either if it is kit built or ard...
So, to say that this or that lasts less or more is obvious nonsense. I had a radio problem once, and I lost all control over my C Goldberg Cub way up there... It came down very fast, and I had nothing... Would it have been different with an ARF? No. An ARF would have crashed the same as the Goldberg...
Gerry