Well clearly this has turned into ARFs bad, Kits Good. I am a builder, yes I have 1 ARF. It was a birthday present from a family member, a Uproar 40. One of the things that I find with this ARF is I fly the heck out of it. Probably because other than the radio and engine, if I slam it into the ground I certainly wouldn't be heart broken. It's just a plane.

Having said that, its certainly is not my plane. Its just one of thousands of pre-built, looks like every other, factory assembled, boxed up toys. I have never had anyone come up to me and say. Wow, what a good looking aircraft! I certainly would not every compare it to "Craftman's" work mention here before.

ARFs are "ME TOO" aircraft that do have a place. There are lots of poeple that don't build... Their loss! I get sick and tired of people saying that they don't have the skills to build. I didn't either until I actually built one! The only ARFs that even come close to "craftmanship" are probably from manufactures such as VQ or Valley. But these ARFs are huge, and have a craftsman's price tag starting at nearly $600.

I think the main issue that we have with ARFs is the disappearance of Kits. Just look at the Tower Catalog for 2006. I pulled out an old one (2000). Tower had a few ARFs and lots of Kits. Now they have 100s of ARFs and a few Kits.

ARFs are OK, but when the community starts to brag about their ARFs and how good they look and fly, what is the world coming to? To use the metaphor use earlier, that would like bragging about the Lithograph reproduction of the Mona Lisa. It may look good, but it is just something that another couple of thousand of people had. I certainly wouldn't compair it to the original or any original.

At my field when someone shows up with an ARF, you might get a "How does it fly", but everytime I show up with my Yak-3 and there is someone at the field that hasn't seen it, they always come over and ask "Did you build this? How did you paint it? Wow, it looks awesome!"

By an ARF and have fun, but don't take too much pride in it because even if you "recover" it. It is not your work, its not your plane, its just another copy built by $1.00/day laborers somewhere in the developing world. You can spin it anyway you want but that's the facts!

By a Kit and have fun building it, making it yours, unique, something you can take pride in. It is your work and you will fly it as such.