I have 3 also. The oldest is a Ramrod, now 6 years old and still going strong, then a PC9- 4+ years old and still flying. The newest is a Cessna 182, ST 61 powered. (2 years old) Flies fine.

How have I maintained the longevity? Well, non has crashed and that's a start, Mind you, if and when they do, they won't survive, haven't seen a VMAR survive a bad crash yet.

Nor do I take them out on very hot days. If the temp is in the 60-75 degree F bracket, no problems, anything above that, I choose another model. (Mind you I don't bother even going flying when it gets into the 90's.)

The fuse warping is caused by the funny, oily, Asian pine material that VMAR use. (The Vietnamese Government made it very tough to get balsa from the west in VMAR'S early days, hence their choice of this stuff.) . But their latest offerings (the Jodel) uses plantation grown balsa from New Guinea.

My PC9 has a slightly warped rear fuse, but it really doesn't affect the models performance. As long as the wingtip measurement from the ground is equal for both tips and the wing and horizontal stab are parallel it will fly o.k. You might have to use a bit of trim on the Tx on one side, but I have several other balsa ARF's from well regarded manufacturers that have to have that as well, so it's not a unique problem.

A common problem is also warped ailerons. Apply a heat from a heat gun and twist the aileron the opposite way of the twist. You may need several goes to rectify the problem.

And yes, junk the plastic bits.

The Texan 11 and the PC9 do not have the new covering. The 1st one of their models with that was the RV4.

They're not the best ARF around, but they're cheap and you get what you pay for. If you want a better quality kit, then look at World Models, though they don't have a Texan 11.

(But stear clear of anything that WM have with rotating retracts. Trouble with a capital " T" )