Gordon,

Since you bring up GP....If you read my Great Planes U-CAN-DO-3D review I told it exactly as I saw it. The plane in my opinion was put together well and at least to me extremely fun to fly (I know this is shared by many being that the ucando thread is almost the largest on RCU to date with praises littered throughout). I did document a problem I had with no right thrust in the firewall and how to fix it. Does this make it a bad ARF? I don't think it does. Just an issue that needed to be known and dealt with. A few washers to get this fixed and I was on my way.

I also replace the long 2-56 rods for ailerons & rudder for some carbon fiber. I don't know if the stock ones would cause flutter but it was easy to substitute and took no additional time on my part. Again a minor issue I would not knock an ARF for. Just my preference for what I was comfortable with for those pushrods. Others might disagree...lots of opinions we all have.

I'm also doing the Great Planes Venus. So far everything has been according to plan except for the wheel pants & a wing bolt I had to shorten. I'm not comfortable with the attachment method shown in the directions and will modify it and note why in the review. Does this mean the ARF is not a winner? Of course not. There is lots of subjectivity in how to do things with model aircraft and that is why many might not agree with the writers. I've seen stuff writers do to planes/heli's and say "I'd never glue that thing like that". Again just depends on what your comfortable with.

My UCANDO came out of the box with flawless covering. Not a single wrinkle or blemish. The Venus had a couple areas that needed tightening and a few minutes with an iron and it was perfect. No big deal in my opinion. Many kits come from overseas and the temperature and humidity changes in containers can wreak havoc on covering. All my models seem to loosen up a bit down in my cold basement. Again I wouldn't strike a kit down for it but that is me. Even before I ever take an iron to any ARF the covering blows away anything I could do on my best day.

There are things that are well outside of opinion like the absolute need for right thrust. While important it was not difficult to visually spot or to fix as I did on the ucando and noted it.

I've personally pointed out all the things I didn't like or had to fix/change in my reviews and why. None of them have prevented the model itself from being a plane I would not recommend (at least as I type this post).

Many peoples experiences and views may differ but that is what is so truly awesome about these discussion forums. We can express them and take away what we want to.

Often times the forums are a godsend. With that long bolt mentioned above on the venus I would never have known until the model was done what was happening. It was a 1/4" or so too long and hits the pushrod. I had to clip it shorter and it was fixed. Without these forums I might have spent more time figuring out why the control surface wasn't acting properly. A minor flaw and with the help of the members here a complete non issue as it will be for all readers of the review who may decide to get this plane.

I don't think in 26 years I've ever had a model where I didn't have to fix a few small things or change them to my preference. Usually minor nit picky stuff but perhaps that is what makes this hobby interesting at times.