Same technique here, especially if the nose wheel is digging in. I relax up pressure as the plane begins to get light on the wheels most of the time.


As for ARFs being so good that builders can't improve on them- believe whatever you wish but pardon my laughing. Personally, I've never seen an ARF that didn't need something done to correct things. There are countless messages on RCU from ARF buyers who found no glue, hot glue, hinges never glued, wood never glued, etc. There are quite a number of stories of ARFs with wings folded in flight, fuselage bottoms ripped out on slightly bouncy landings, and retracts breaking on the maiden taxi out for takeoff. Yup, some are decent but a lot are safety hazards waiting to crash....which they do within the first few flights.

My trainer is an ARF, so I'm not totally against them. The plane I was going to train on crashed and this was all there was at that moment. I was stuck with a transmitter, someone to train me, and no suddenly no plane. There happened to be a used ARF trainer for sale at the same time. It needed a lot of work done on it to survive. Reinforced firewall. Fuel proofing as there was none anywhere. Reinforced attaching gear for the tail and elevator as the supplied gear was crap. Nylon bolts for the main gear instead of flimsy, little screws. Real ply for the fuselage bottom for the main gear instead of single sheet balsa. Correction of major down thrust problems. Foam for the fuel tank. Builders stuff that was done to keep the plane from falling apart.