how are the creek hobbies airplanes and are they good or crap
how do they fly (katana) mostly
are the good arfs
why are they so cheep
are they as good as the hanger 9 edge or so
has any one had any bad or good experences with these air planes


i need all info

3dintheair

Performance:
Not bad. Average compared to same airplane of same size by other vendors. But for Katana, there's no other vendors making it, so it's a good choice by default.

Material used:
Wood: so so, strength to weight ratio is cheap, but acceptable
Covering: Econokote: comes off, not quite opaque
Hardware: bare minimum. You'd replace most of them anyway

Construction:
Straightness: Good
Structural Design: Good, will take more abuse than H9 ARF's

So for $200, the Katana is a good buy. The other 4, perhaps not.

Do a search on Creek Hobbies and you'll find lots of info. I don't have a lot of experience, but for the money, I think they are great.

Mike

nope plain and simple dont waste your money on one cheapest wood iv ever seen on a arf,, craftmanship that looks like a 123 puzzle

I was wondering if Giant Scale planes made the Creek Line.

They sure look the same.

I hope the creeks are better quality than GSP.

Oh, I've seen worse wood.

I do have experience and first off, ARF's are crap compared to kit built. That said, Creek is right there with ARF's. Strip a H9 and you'll find scraps glued in to fill areas short on wood. So far on my Creek Extra looks like all new wood was used. Flies good and doesn't come apart in the air, pretty much what matters. It's a simple design but straight. Mine is one of the nicest peices of crap Iv'e flown and it's a good buy for crap. Plus, you can't get 2 piece wings on any other arf at this price. They are sold by GSP as well but Creek claims GSP is a retailer of these Creeks.

here in the UK they are distributed and branded by Protech.

I have the Katana and think its absolute crap for £260. They could at least cover it with something decent. But, and the reason I bought it is its supposed to fly and 3D very well - as yet mine is unflown.

Arnie, I would have been very disappointed for what you paid, $400. Still crap for the $240 I paid but I was less disappointed. FWIW it will 3D fine.

I'll admit to knowing NOTHING about kit building, but for the money, I think this is a deal. Sure, they could have used Monokote or Ultracote. Then the price would have gone up. Sure they could use contest grade balsa (see above). If all you're looking for is highest quality, you should be shopping at Fiberclassics or something not Creek. You'll definitely get what you paid for there.

How they can build it, sell it for that price AND make a profit is a mystery. And no, I don't need a lesson in $2 a day labor.

By the way, I took the bottom covering off of mine last night to re-run my antenna and tie my servo wires down. The wood and joints looked fine to me.

Mike

I'm just being facetious. You really do get what you pay for. Unfortunately some people have to pay too much for lesser quality. As for us here in the USA, this aircraft is a good deal.

I have the Extra and for the money you can't beat it. Hey flat spin lover you must have more then a dislike for them. If your gonna take the time to tell us they are crap do us a favor and use a little more detail. Other wise your post has no value for the guy wanting info. I have had great customer service with them. I talked to one guy on the phone for 30 minutes about how I should set it up. Anyway I would buy it again. This is my first ARF the rest of my planes are kits.

WELL CAPTAIN G
were did i use that CR@P! word at!! i would have used much worse.
u can take any advice u want! im just telling you that they are a really poor! and i'm saying poor quality plane, and there customer service was well lets just say that, i've had better luck trying to return a slurpee at a 7-11 are getting my dog to meow...ok u want me to explain well then sit back cause this is going to be a long read..

ok first off just to get this plane in the air! i neeeded to reglue the whole fire wall and motor box asssembly back together do to the lack of glue..
the landing gear structure box was built out of the cheapest grade ply i've ever seen, i've seen better wood on thoses lil 99 cent galliow balsa gliders.
it only had glue on a spot on one side, and on one end!
i did a standard landing! and the landing gear popped out so trying to find the prob. i seen that the ply popped out (now im not sayin rippped!! Popped ) due to the lack of glue and the ply actually seperated delaminated , due to the poor quality ply chossen for a landing gear box
the ultra cote! are cheap ol coat!! are what ever its called was the cheapest most fragile stuff ive ever seen, and it looks like it was put on by a blind man and a candle to heat it up.
then u look at the design of the plane it looks like the nose was designed a lil to short,, for u to put the servos in the tail were the cut out's are ur going to have to put at least 8 to 14 oz's of lead in the nose to get a docile C.G. and that makes for a nice heavey plane..
and these prob's are just the tip of the iceberg!
then u talk customer service thats about as friendly as waiting in line at the D.M.V. for 2 hours.
i called them up told them about what was going on, and they said ohhh ya sure send it back and we will decide !! I said send it back the tail feathers are built??
yup send it back ..So i said ok then send UPS to come pick this up and send a large enough double box (remeber this is a 1/4 scale 3d size tail feathers built already)to pick this up and ill have no prob sending it back. And they said no that they wernt going to do thats! so i did some home work for me to send my plane back with a double ex large box in the size it would take and weight!
it was going to cost me $87 .00 from california to new jersey
and that wasnt even with insurance
so let''s do a lil math
it cost me
$200.00 plus tax
$45.00 to get it to me in the standard box
$87.00 to send it back
lets see that put's me
$332.00 in the hole for them to decide if my plane was of cheap quality.. are not do anything at all!! and send it back !!
even if they were to stand by there product, and send me a new plane id still be in the hole.
then they asked me what size motor i was running and i said a 1.60 and then they replied ohhh welll thats the prob!! that i'em over powering it
but when i said that i have a magazine ad that say the recomended motor size's!! has the 1.60 printed in black in white
they denied!! that there was a ad in any magazine that stated this info..
they know that most of the product sales come through mail order are via internet and they know its going to cost some money to send stufff back via UPS/MAIL/etc etc. lt and then u have the pending fact that THEY will decide if the product is defective.
ohh well what can u do be in the hole $300 plus buck's plus time and labor
just to get the door slamed in your face when you need some product support
when i get the support i deserve from creek hobbies and they choose to stand up for there product
like they should!!! they are nothing but another money hungry company making a quick buck off a hard working person
trying to enjoy a hobby...........

Man! Flat-spin-lover, I hope you have better days! You also got the misfortune of getting a lemon. All arf's use hot glue and are cr@p (is cr@p profanity?)but some are much worse than others. Mine was built better than yours, must have been raining at the factory (hut) that day. I respect your opinion, they should have bought it back from you. I stalled mine from about 18" on landing and the gear was fine. Guess I got lucky, did I mention arf's are crap? What pi$$es me off is with the skyrocketing popularity of arf's, I've already seen the availability of kits shrink.

flat-spin-lover thanks for the reply, I guess you did have a bad experience. I glassed my firewall and engine box. I also pinned the firewall with 8 tooth pick size pins. That firewall is not going anywhere. That also gave me all the nose weight I needed. Of course I am using a g26 which is heavier. I used a little CA on the parts that I could see in the fuselage. I don't know if it needed it but it couldn't hurt. Anyway I guess we should not treat a $199.00 arf like it was a $400.00 Arf. I don't expect any more then I pay for.

This is getting back to the age old battle of ARF's versus Kits.I will admit that there are alot of ARF's out there that aren't worth the money.I also think that there are a few that are of a better quality.Granted that I haven't been in this hobby as most of the people in this forum.But I do buy ARF's and build kits.I bought the Creek Katana.For $200,it's not a bad plane.Yes there are some things I would do different,and I did change some things on it.But it is what it is.A $200 aerobatic 1.20 size ARF.I am a firm believer in you get what you pay for.I'd be kidding myself if I expected it to perform like my friends 40% Carden Cap.Just my 2 cents.

Hank

Have a Sukohi, Great value, good flying airplane. One problem..fiberglass gear..broke after two landings... replaced with aluminum and no problems. Plane really tail heavy. used 1 1/2 lbs lead in cowl to balamce. Using TT 1.20 pro.. adequate power. Easy flying except need to keep speed up in turns.

I just finished my Katana. I read a lot of post here on RCUniverse saying that the creek arf come out tail heavy, so I used a pull-pull system on the elev & ruder with the servos in the fuse and the plane came out slightly nose heavy. I have an OS 1.60 FX and the plane has unlimited vertical. It looks great and flies nice and straight. You can't beat this plane at $200.

Stephen

Stephen,

If you have the means, I'd love to see how you installed the elevator pull-pull.

Mike

Mike

I installed the servos above and just behind the wing tube in the fuselage. the elevator halves were each on a separate servo. the top elev. cable comes out of the fuselage through the foam turtle deck about an inch or so in front of the vertical fin. the lower cable come out of the side of the fuselage above the rudder cable. I'll try and post some pictures of the setup tonight.

Stephen

Rear view of Pull-Pull

Sorry it took so long to post the pictures of the pull-pull setup. This system is working great for me, and with the servos in the fuesalage I didn't have to add any weight.

Stephen

Cool. Good job, Stephen.

Mike