10-14-07
Mike,
As per my email to you on 10-12-07, I am greatly interested in the Skylark 70 and I read your review in RC Universe. My concern is the potential weakness of the landing gear blocks. Over the past year, I have built two Skylark 56s. They were a dream to build and fun to fly, but both suffered landing gear block failures on their first trip to out nicely cut grass flying field. I later read seven reviews in RCU about the Skylark 56, and five had the same problem. When this problem was brought to Goldberg's attention, there were no positive replies. When I sent two emails to Goldberg over the last two weeks (they are now part of Great Planes), there was no reply. You wrote a wonderful review, but I am concerned that your review has Carl Goldberg artwork around the sub topics. Was your review completely impartial? Do you have contacts with Goldberg? If so, why won't they respond on the potentially weak landing gear blocks in the new plane issue? For $220 for the ARF, what assurances can you and/or Goldberg give me that the weak LG blocks issue in the 56s has been addressed and adequately corrected in the 70? Do you fly off a paved runway or grass? How many landings does yours have? Have you noticed anything unusual about your landing gear blocks? If I build the 70 and the LG blocks break inside, there is a large red or blue covering panel over the block. If I go in to repair the blocks, the recovering will most likely not match and will look awful. At least on the 56, after I repaired the blocks, I only had to replace white covering which wasn't so ugly. It is discouraging to spend $220 for a new plane, one that you really like, only to be hesitant about how well the main LGs are beefed up and glued inside, and on the first hard landing, there will be a four repair following at home. Please address these issues and/or ask for input from Goldberg before responding. Thanks for listening.