There's always got to be one in every bunch. OTH, I've seen many a plane that the owner said was next to worthless and after a little work correcting installation errors and replacing garbage equipment that same plane turned out to be awesome.
My personal experience with W/H planes, which is extensive, tells me that if you do the things you are supposed to do the way they should be done, and don't short change on the equipment, you will have an excellent flying plane. More OTH is that if you try to go cheap with second rate second quality products, and pay little, if any, attention to all the set up information that's been provided by hundreds of happy customers, then the short life of an aircraft can be assured. The quality of the flight maneuvers is entirely up to the skill level of the pilot.
I'm "that one in the bunch". I respect your opinions, Pat, and even sent you an email or two before deciding on the WH 260. The problems I had with mine though began before any assembly or installation took place. They had to do with basic construction and finish. Those were the issues I passed on to DbCoronaFlyer and told him to be sure to check over his plane very carefully. One significant issue with my plane wouldn't have been known if I hadn't ended up stripping the plane, so I'm glad I did. The plane isn't quite finished yet so in my email to DbCoronaFlyer I obviously didn't discuss any sort of flight characteristics. Just because the majority of people may have a positive experience with WH products doesn't mean that when someone doesn't it has to be because the person is inept and so somehow assembled something incorrectly. Every manufacturer produces a lemon from time-to-time. The issue then becomes how the problems associated with the lemon are/aren't resolved.
Silversurfer you are abosuletly correct. Cheap equipment + rushing the assembly = disaster.
I'll be using the 3W80, JR receiver, HD extensions, JR HD switches, SWB servo arms, Hitec 5955 servos everywhere except the throttle, etc. That rules out the "cheap equipment" idea. As far as rushed assembly, as discussed above, the problems I experienced started before the assembly.
Some of these people that are having the problems may not know how to properly build a plane to begin with.
I've built several aerobatic and warbird kit planes over the years. In 25 years of RC modeling this is only my 2nd ARF. Building a well-finished and good flying warbird like a GS AT6 Texan (with rounded fuselage), retracts, etc. from a kit requires more basic modeling skill than something like the typical Extra, which I've done also. A very experienced local GS modeler has been meticulously assembling the plane while I finished the re-covering. I have every confidence that the plane will be assembled correctly now that the construction shortcomings have been fixed.
The WH 260 owners I contacted prior to purchasing the plane love the flight characteristics of their planes so I'm hoping mine turns out to be a good flier in the end.
Dan