Yes DB, that was exactly the point I was trying to make. Safety is a personal responsibility that is all encompassing - kit or ARF.

It dumbfounds me why checking and reinforcing an ARF is such a issue. If folks who are supposedly master craftmen view building model airplanes themselves as an art and a worthy challenge, how is it that they are stumped by a piece of thin covering film? It isn't at all dificult to peel back the covering to add more glue, tristock, and/or firberglass/carbon fiber, etc. I've done that many a times with ARFs. If you can't peel back and reapply the covering (Ultracote is great at that, Monocote doesn't like to be peeled back once attached), you can easily cut away a portion of the covering, do you reinforcements, and reapply a new piece of covering. I've done that too. If you plan the cut lines carefully and try for area not usually seen (e.g. underside of fuselage), the fix will hardly be noticed.

Heck, I've butchered up brand new ARFs, with reinforcements as an excuse, and ended up with a much improved airplane. Here's an example of one. It started out as a World Models Super Stunt 60. Mine is now an Super Stunt 120:

1. Converted it to a taildragger, with the appropriate reinforcements
2. Reshaped the tail feathers, and sheeted the bottom of the horizontal stab
3. Reinforced the fuselage forward section and firewall
4. Sheeted the top and bottom of the fuselage rear section
5. Chopped off the Stik-type wingtips
6. Added additional shearwebs
7. Added quad flaps
8. Installed a 1.20 4stroke

When I brought it out to the field, some guys asked if it were a H9 Ultra Stik 1.20. Most didn't have any idea what it was, but all thought it was a beautiful airplane. When I rattled off all the mods I did to it, some scratched their heads wondering how I did all that.

So... why should the words Almost Ready to Fly stop me from having fun building and ensuring the safety of my aircraft at the same time? ARFs save me from having to frame up from scratch and still allows me the freedom to modify. I've even turn ARF into ARC by ripping off all the covering. Do you have to do all THAT to your ARF? Of course not. You should do what you think is prudent.

If you are as ingenious and take as much pride in craftsmanship as you say you all are, then this topic should have been a non-issue from the very start.