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Old 08-29-2007 | 10:17 AM
  #25  
vmsguy
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From: Woodville, WI
Default RE: Would you build this kit?

ORIGINAL: yojoelay

(snip)

Last, be certainly not least, I am not satisfied with the notion the building skills must be won over time sweating it out solo in a dusty garage somewhere. There has got to be a better way than lousing it up, carrying it out to the field for the boys to critique, and coming home with 10 different solutions and 3 new problems you didn't know you had to begin with.

Thanks again for your input. All the best,

Joel
It sounds to me like you're trying to sell knowledge, skill, and experience in a box. No one has figured out how to do that yet. Building skills are attained over time. Whether you go to the field with a piece of ...er... junk, or with a masterpiece in craftsmenship. You're going to get critiqued on it. Skill, experience, and practical application of knowledge can only be gained through time, and trial. Some of that trial can be painful and/or embarassing. Some not. How you approach that trial is up to you.

I don't know how you're going to gaurentee a well built plane kit when what you offer is the kit. No amount of hand holding, phone support, and expert quality materials is going to overcome the human factor, the unknown skill level of the end-user. Once the end-user takes posession of the kit, quality control is totally out of your hands. Quaility of kit can only go so far.

As mentioned by others, the logical conclusion to your thinking is building the kit for the end-user. That is the only way you can assure the plane will be of the quality your proposal suggests. It almost sounds like your business model should include this. Sell "the best custom build RC airplane money can buy." Advertise "only the finest quality materials, built by expert craftsmen, inspected and tested and delivered to you, the way you want it."

A story to tell. One guy at my flying field started RC planes this spring. Just like me. We took different paths. He went to the field met people, and someone there "took him under his wing." (Appropriate pun!) and together they built his first plane. A high wing trainer, probably a PT-40 or something. I looked at the plane, and all the hinge joints were tight. The plane was a well built craft. I have no doubt while building the plane the mentor had to occasionally step in before he saw the student screw up, or he let the student screw up so he'd learn a lesson. I on the other hand, built my plane by myself in my basement. I did a lot of reading here, and looked at other planes, and asked questions. Mine didn't turn out so well, and recently I had to admit to myself I had screwed up, and I tore the covering off (the plane had never flown!) and rebuilt areas I realized I had built improperly. Now my plane has nice tight hinge joints. And I've learned things from the experience I'm incorporating into my next plane. My plane still hasn't flown. But at least now, when I take it to the field, I won't look like complete idiot. But I fully expect to have deficiencies pointed out to me once I get there. I know it still has some I just can't fix. Morel of the story. Experience is experience. No matter how you get it. And you can't teach it, you can't put in a box and sell it. It has to be gained through time and effort.