RE: Building vs Assembling [kits vs arf]
This is just a take from a young pup (30), been in the hobby for 7 years:
I was out at the field this last Saturday, and there was a club member there that comes out on a fairly regular basis. The problem that I have, is that he does not know how to do anything on his own or read instructions. Not that people haven't tried to show him how, he has no interest in learning. He only wants to fly. He has one of the club members that works at our LHS assemble (ARF's) all of his models. Someone always has to tune his engines and if anything goes wrong he is clueless.
He was having problems with an engine on a Decathalon, and another member and myself ended up pulling the tank. The clunk line was too short and the fill/vent lines were pointed down (only fill the tank half full), and we also found that the linkage on the barrel of the carb was not secure, so the barrel would turn sometimes and other times it wouldn't.
Now, I don't mind helping someone out if they are paying attention and trying to learn and become more familiar with the gear that they are using on their model, but I'm not going to spend half of my Saturday messing around with someones stuff that has no desire to learn how to do it on his own.
I'm afraid that with some of the advances in the hobby, there are going to be those that come in and think that they just want to fly and not take the time and learn how the model functions/operates, and that's fine, just don't fly around me (This guy is extremely scary, especially when you are on the flight line when he takes off).
Needless to say he buried his new Cub, completely totalled. From what he said and the way that it acted, I would say that the linkage on the elevator broke or was not secure. This is the third plane that he has crashed in the last two months.
I'm not an ARF fan, but I see why some people like them. I personally, have owned two, a GP Texan and a profile. The Texan was pretty good quality and was not in kit form, so I bought it. The profile on the other hand was crap it didn't go together well and didn't fly well. I will however never own one again, as I get satisfaction from knowing that I built it, how it went together and that if anything goes wrong, it is all my fault.
I know that there is still a lot for me to learn in this hobby and I have some great members in our club to learn from. There are quite a few older gentlemen that just build, and their work is just awesome, something that no arf could possibly capture. There are others that know a lot about engines and radio gear, lots to be learned if people will just take the time to ask questions and listen. With new advances in kit cutting and the ability to make the building of a kit simpler, hopefully building will stay around for a while to come and some of these kits that have been discontinued for a while may reappear.
Just my 2 cents.