RE: dear sig mfg
At my field, building is still encouraged, and all the veteran flyers let the newbies know that building your first few planes will probably give you an edge and make you a better pilot in the end. Not always true, but for the most part it helps a lot. I'm not in love with ARFs, but after spending the past few years trying to get enough extra time to finish up a few kits I have in the wings, I came to the conclusion that these will make the difference in the time I have and get me back on the field doing something other than just instructing. I instruct because I feel it's my duty, my little effort to perpetuate the hobby. These ARFs will give me some variety in what I can fly at the field now. I'm also in this position because I made the decision to downsize my fleet, and by downsizing I mean I'm getting smaller planes and getting rid of my larger planes. ARFs give me the ability to easily replace large size planes with smaller size planes. I was at that crucial point where my battery packs as a whole were at the end of their useful lives, so replacing them with new packs for the ARFs I'm getting into saves me a little money, and the models I'm selling pay for the ARFs themselves. It's a matter of practicality, and I'm simply moving the money from the large plane sales into paying for the small planes.
I honestly didn't think I was INVADING Kelldog's turf when I came in here and posted. I saw "SIG", I saw "great flying planes" and "great kits", and I've experienced all of that. I can't say enough about SIG and their products. True, the ARFs are a little different, and I have felt the disappointment when certain kits stopped being offered. But I've never done more than shrug my shoulders, because right now today I could go out there and find a Bud Nosen Cessna 310 kit if I looked hard enough, and they haven't been offered for 15 years. In fact, I've been selling all my kits on RCU for the past few weeks, and more to come and go. By the way, I have a SIG Kadet Mark II kit still in the box for sale and a set of floats in the box taped to the side of that one. These things are going to be around and coming up for sale for as many years as any of us are going to be flying.
There's actually TONS of good horses around these days, and CHEAP. You just have to look for them a little differently, but they are there to be found.
Things are changing, and it bugs me as much as it bugs anybody. But, here I am on one of these computer gizmos, and now I'm a webmaster and I know all about these. It seems there's always something changing, it seems there's always something to learn, but if you stopped having to learn new things, life would go stagnant pretty darn fast. There's always something new coming down the pike, and there's always something that practicality dictates that we will have to let go of sooner than we wanted to. Some of us sooner than others. I doubt that SIG actually wanted to restructure their entire sales plan so they could change to selling these ARFs, but that's the way it was going and they want to continue being there as our modeling company in whatever way they can. I doubt they wanted to throw away die-cutters for complete kits that they used to sell every day.
And I didn't want to go to ARFs, but they're very well built and I'm going to be able to fly because of them. I'm letting go of building and I'm trying to put a positive spin on these, and pointing out that they've come a long way in the last few years, enough so that I'm pleased that I now have a way to go.
I HAVE prioritized. THIS is a SMART way for me to go here. And if I've invaded your turf, Kelldog, then so be it. Get used to it, both here and at the field, The times they are a-changing. I came here to say that I think SIG is a great company. I was trying to join in the conversation with my enthusiasm for SIG products, but don't expect me to lie down and take abuse because you feel the whole world should be feeling the CA burn alongside you. I like the things I do, I'm happy about my decisions regarding ARFs and building and they're well thought out. I don't think that I've incorporated stubbornness or obstreperous ramifications anywhere into them. (Cussing) I do think, however, that I'll refrain from posting further in this thread, seeing as it seems to be bothering somebody that much.
Jim Surra