I'm with Flakbait. Buy everything you'll need to complete a plane before you even start. I bought a Uravitch 81" Bronco. My first twin. Excited? You bet! I ordered the accessories, wood and engines............all I needed was retracts.

Sierra Precision has a good reputation for quality and I liked the looks of their gear as seen on their website. However, their site stated that the gear would not be available until March, 2004. It was December, 2003 when I read that. Part of me wanted to get started on this bird then, order the gear in March and have it ready to go come spring. It's a good thing I didn't..........it is now October, 2004 and the gear is still not available!

That, in itsself, is bothersome but what really toasts by buns is the lack of response to my inqueries to Sierra Precision. Actually, no response would be more like it. I got a chance to talk with one of the guys at their booth at Warbirds Over Delaware and he said they hadn't worked out the spring rates yet. He said different Broncos they were testing were coming in at different weights and they didn't know what spring would provide a happy medium. Hello? Put a few different springs in the box with the gear and let the customer choose, if that's the case.

I've got a kit that's heading toward its first birthday and still no "good" gear! I'm tempted to just sell it off to someone who doesn't mind using Spring Air's or, YUCK!, Century Jet's. All because the brand I want is a company that is unresponsive to their customers.

I'm just glad the Bronco isn't taking up space in my shop in a semi-finished state.

Al