Hi,

I bought a GP Big Stik ARF (.40 sized) recently. I completed the ARF & installed the gear in about 8 hours. I found the instructions to be clear. The kit was missing a couple of pieces - the fuel tank, and the nylon wing screws. The only error that I found was the recommended drill bit for the wing dowels was a bit too large. The only change I made was to build the plane as a tail dragger & not a trike.

After completing the installation of the engine & radio gear I brought the plane outside to spin up the new Surpass 70 4-stroke. I fueled her up, and applied the electric starter. As soon as the engine started off came the firewall! Luckily the engine stopped immediately, and no damage occurred. I inspected the firewall and from what I could see it was only glued on left hand side. I triangle stocked the inside and expoxied the thing back on. After this I checked out the remainder of the plane. The left wing hold down had almost no glue either and was falling off. I repaired this with a nice helping of epoxy.

The good news is that after these changes the plane flies nicely. The bad news is that I don't have alot of confidence in the quality of the remainder of the kit (it's tough to see the other joints since it's all covered).

Hopefully this thing will not come apart in mid-air. To be sure if the firewall would have hung on until the first flight the plane would have almost certainly been totally destroyed.

Matthew