ARF's have gone through a "sea change" in recent years. I'm an old timer, been involved in r/c since 1974. I have seen ARF's go from blow molded plastic fuselages that had balsa wings with blow molded wing tips and center sections to what we have today which is none other than and true builders kit that has been pre-built at a factory.

What was once a garrish, ugly, nowhere near true to life looking ARF today are beautiful scale models in many cases. The work I see coming out of the boxes from China and Viet Nam are better than most of the average "builders" work I have seen at the flying field over the past three decades. And in particular, the covering jobs. Sorry, but it is true. There are of course the highly talented builders but the great majority of us are not, we are just "average".

I love ARF's. I love the variety we have because of them. I love the convenience and time savings we have because of them. I also love the fact that your "heart and soul" are not re-kitted at the same time as your ARF when it crashes as opposed to a ground up build that took months.