The situation with Great Planes and the Monokote substitution does not seem to be a conspiracy to cheat people out of a few pennies, but a problem with the ARF mfg versus Great Planes.

For example, the GP Skybolt is advertised to be Monokote covered and all but the bottom covering appears to be. The bottom is an orange-white checkerboard covering that is significantly lighter and weaker than Monokote. And there is at least one other model that is covered with something of obviously less quality.

A Great Planes spokesman has said that GP is looking into the problem. That suggests the ARF mfg "didn't read the advertising" (or care about it), and that GP hasn't been keeping a close watch on what's being delivered to them. None of it is good news for us.

What we should learn from this is that it pays for each of us to inspect our ARFs 1st thing and return them if they don't meet our expectations. But then, we really should have been doing that since day 1.