I remember the "OLD" Lanier (spelling) Arf's. They were nothing but flying bricks, if you could get them to fly. Sig Mfg had their "quick build" line which was a bit better, but they were a bit heavy as I remember them. Basically a profile plane with an ABS molded skin for the pretty stuff.

Yes the ARF's are a god send to some. My first ARF, (Hanger 9 CAP) purchased at the beginning of last summer lasted 10 flights before it's demise. The horizontal stab decided it didn't want to play with the rest of the airplane Before that the LG departed the plane on landing after the third flight tearing out the supporting structure. On the sixth flight the LG departed the plane in mid flight never to be found again. My fault for not lock titeing the screws[:@] Now it is being reconstructed mostly from scratch. I only saved the canopy, rear turtle deck, servo tray, cowl (with lots of repair work) and wheel pants (were never on the plane). I "reconstructed" enough to trace new parts and it is for all intents and purposes a scratch build. So I guess I've experienced it all from ARF to cut your own kit. Time will tell if I did a better job on the new plane.

I see no problem with ARF's. If they bring more people to the hobby, GREAT! The more the merrier I say. It helps to drive down the cost of everything hobby related.

Ken