I tend to agree with Piper_chuck on this one. One of the downsides of ARF's is the fact that people tend to not care as much when they crash them. Why not? We all live in a disposable society these days. Instant this, throw away that. This is why ARF's and RTF's have become so popular. You can buy one and in just a few days, or hours, you can be in the air. If you crash it's only a few days before you are back in the air. I've seen this attitude at the field many times over. But now look at a plane that is built from a kit. People who fly these tend to want to take better care of them because of the time that is invested in the building of that plane. But should one avoid building a plane because "you're going to crash it?" That attitude comes from the same throw away attitude that I spoke of above. Just because you are learning doesn't mean that you aren't going to crash your plane beyond repair. I think that more people should build their trainers these days. Yes it does take longer to build it, but the feeling of satisfaction you get from building it will well outweigh the time it's going to take to build it. There are going to be many that are going to step and give me a hundred reasons why they prefer to fly ARF/RTF's. But until you have built a plane and flown it you just can't get into an argument about it because you don't have the same frame of reference as those that have built a plane. Ask any of those that have recently built planes and have had build threads here on RCU. Many of them gave the same arguments that I hear all the time: too busy, no room to build, not enough skills, not enough money, I don't know how, it's too hard, etc..... Now that they have tackled and completed a build they are no longer saying that, in fact most of them are now planning their 2nd, 3rd, even their 4th build. Many say that kits are dying, but I tend to disagree with that. There are plenty of kits out there, and I don't see them going anywhere soon. ARF's are here to stay and that is not going to change, but I predict that kits will start making a comeback in the next few years. As those that were part of the "instant gratification" generation discover the joys of building kits, they will start to demand that the manufacturers bring back their kits.

Many people can't wait to get rid of their trainers once they have learned to fly. I think that is a mistake. I've been in the hobby for 10 years and I still have my trainer and it has somewhere around 600 flights on it right now. And yes, I still take it out and fly it occasionally. It's a total blast to fly your trainer from time to time. Before you ask, no I didn't build my trainer. I inherited it when my father died and I leaned to fly on it out of respect to him because he never got a chance to fly it before he died. But it didn't take me too long after I learned to fly that I started building kits. And the skills that I have from building kits comes in very handy when I do crash a plane. I have the ability to repair a plane and put it back in the air, while others that don't would merely throw the plane away.

To sum everything up. I think that there is no reason at all why a person can't build their own trainer. To tell them that they shouldn't do it because they are just going to crash it is reckless thinking. Using that same train of thought we wouldn't get in our car in the morning because there is a chance you could have an accident. Avoid that airliner because it could crash. Don't eat that hamburger because it may have e-coli in it. Don't drink that water because it might have poisons in it. Heck, don't even get out of bed in the morning............

Go ahead and build that trainer. Take my word for it, the satisfaction you get from seeing it fly will make every second worth it..

Ok, I'll get off my soapbox now.

Ken