Interesting so the company is not the one I was thinking of as they do deal direct............
Never having bought a jet from BVM back in the day were they 'in stock' and available to ship off the shelf? I'm doubtful, companies who can afford to stack them high with a hope they will sell them are unlikely to be about for long IMO, the only companies who seem to be able to do this are the Chinese and for me the compromise in quality is just not worth the convenience of having one sent immediately.
In the UK we have fields in Scotland rammed with 'brand new' Fords etc, sitting out in the weather and being sold as new - heck I'd rather wait for 6 months and buy a car that has been made to order and is indeed new.
Shaun I'm with you on some aspects, problem is this hobby is struggling big time, the companies who do make great kits and products wont be about if they manufacture loads of stock in the hope they sell it, demand is so unpredictable and just cannot be relied on, the result will be more companies disappearing off the scene leaving us with mass produced sub standard products. I would like companies to be more transparent and honest in the communication piece, its always pays to be up front and honest. A long time back I made a kit with a friend, each one was hand made by ourselves, we had a 3 month lead time at the start but soon after we started to get orders and ship the first kits we were let down by the company who finished and painted the kits which resulted in delays while we sourced a new paint shop to do the work to the standard we wanted, other issues with epoxy, landing gear manufacture etc all added huge headaches to the whole project and ultimately let to us selling the moulds to a German company. I hope that during the time we were selling the kits we kept our customers informed and up to date with the time frames so they could relax in the knowledge that they were valued and we were not just making off with their money - its not a fun journey making jets I can assure you and as a result of this 'experience' I admire any individual or company who enter this job purely for the hobby side.
Maybe a thread with a list of manufacturers, their payment terms, quoted lead times/actual experienced lead time and customer feedback might be a good data set to help us all.....
marcs