Originally Posted by jamesroutledge

As you guys have replied, I'll start out by apologizing for the use of the term morons. Spoken in haste.

The remainder of my statement stands. To put things in perspective, the average American salary is $2826 according to numbeo.com.
The average salary in many other countries for similar level of skill is very much lower in dollar terms. For instance, a degreed software engineer has an average salary of $2200.

This makes a Firebird like yours ($5000 for airframe and accessories, $3000 for Jetcat P180, $1000 for sundries) a considerable investment. Only people with a pretty high salary can contemplate that. ( not to mention that it's probably not the best "trainer" available. It's fast with a pretty high wing loading)
The Firebird under discussion opens the field to a heluva lot more ordinary folks. Yes, it wont last 1000 flights. Yes, it's not a carbon fiber wonder. And yes it may be a Chinese copy of an existing airframe. But when you make your rookie mistake and hook it back towards the runway in a tight turn, it won't bite and try burrowing a hole, and if you do plant it, you won't have to sell one of the kids to finance the replacement.

In summary it is an economical, simple trainer, but calling it a piece of s**t is overstepping it in my opinion.

All in all it's great value and does what it says on the box. The one we are flying here has 40 plus flights on it, and is still in perfect condition.