I do love these types of discussions! Why? Because each comment is an opportunity to listen and learn and improve. One interesting thing Jeff Bezos of Amazon fame always said was that he never bothered to pay attention to his competitors because he could not change what they do anyway. All he could do was change what they did so it was most important to listen to their customer.

I will say all reviewers do not get paid so they have no stake in it. Many of the products we review also come entirely or partially with substantial cash outlay out of the reviewers pocket. I'll tell you that Erick has spent $1000's of dollars out of his pocket already to put review models in the air. He's not going to sugar coat anything.

I also let the writers know to just be honest. If there is a problem then say so and explain it. The manufacturers are allowed to review the pieces for accuracy or errors. They do not review it to "rewrite" any part of it to put the product in a better light. A few companies here and there weren't thrilled with some of the things said or the way certain things were modified but on the writers end we were just being honest (from our viewpoint).

Honesty in reviews seems to be the holy grail of RC Magazines. RC Report always gets high marks from crowds when it comes to this it seems. RCU is striving for the same raw brutal honesty. Most of the time (at least so far) we have not encountered any bad arfs or kits. Some have had minor issues but that was it.

As for matching writers to plane/helis/cars/products we do as best as we can. Some deadlines occur where the "best" match is not always made. Sometimes some matches are made intentionally for certain reasons like the U-CAN-DO-3D review I did. I am not the greatest 3D or funfly pilot BUT this plane claimed that a "normal" flyer could actually do stuff in the 3D realm. What better way to try this than have a slightly above average flyer like me to see if I could do it? I never could hover any of my other planes but I was hovering the UCANDO the 1st day at the field. Proof positive this plane does what they say. Will it do more? Sure. I will update my review with more info and video as time goes by. Other reviewers who might not have got enough flight time in at press time can also add updates and will do this.

The reason we publish the reviews without a huge amount of flight time on them is because we CAN update them later. Also many companies want certain products to appear sooner rather than later (and sometimes vice versa) so we work with them as much as we can. Other times we need material so we put the review in and update it later.

Also we are only in our 6th issue ( I think..) so we are REAL new to this and learning as we go along. We are ignoring any past rules or assumptions and listening to what people want with each passing issue. Go look at our first issue and then at our latest...you will see the progress...

As for MAN, RCM, RCR...I honestly like 'em all...I could read a magazine full of just ads...if it's RC I'm happy...