Hi, I'm putting together a 1.40 sized aerobatic plane that's gonna be powered by a 26cc gas engine. Its a Chinese ARF, and the plane comes with those ubitquitous CA style hinges. Right now, I'm debating whether to use them or to install some Robart point hinges like I would on a kit/scratch build.

Yes they're very quick and pretty cheap, and to be fair, I've never had a properly installed CA hinge fail on me. This includes everything from small electrics up to 26cc gassers. Closest was a second hand plane where the hinges on the tail feathers just popped out after 20 flights and it was pretty obvious that the previous owner had not used enough thin CA. Other incidences of failure I've personally seen typically involve the builder using medium or thick CA instead of the prescribed thin variety. I've also seen a 26cc gasser with CA style hinges hit the dirt hard and even after that, all the hinge lines were intact.

I've read some nasty things about these hinges and was just wondering how bad they really are. Afterall, most builders will use CA for various parts of the build. I'm mainly trying to cut weight (and perhaps a little time) off this build. Weight savings would to my mind justify using the CA hinges, but not at the expense of safety.

Any guidance/experience/thoughts would be much appreciated.