RE: Carl Goldberg Kits
Well, I have to put my 2 cents worth in on the quality of Goldberg Chipmunk kits. First of all I built one when they first came out and the build was uneventful. It was my 5th kit and I had already built several Goldberg kits prior. So I was familiar with the box lock construction. Fast forward to christmas 2008. My wife thought that she would be nice and buy me a new one to build over the winter. Piece of cake, right? NOT! I had forgotten that Goldberg had been bought out twice over the last several years. It was obvious that someone got the bright idea to change die cutting to laser cutting. Sig did and their kits are really nice. But as I looked through the kit, I noticed that about 34 pieces of wood were missing. I was a bit mad to say the least. So I called Great Planes{The new Goldberg, Carl must be turning in his grave about now} I have to admit that I was impressed by the service that I got from them. I had new wood in 2 days! Ok, I started building tail surfaces, no problem. Then the wing. I started noticing that the laser cutting wasn't very accurate. But in the computer world, garbage in, garbage out. So I made adjustments and the wing turned out pretty nice. I had been reading forums on the Chipmunk build and alot of people were not happy with the accuracy of the laser cutting. I started to build the fuse and thats when things weren't great. Alot of the former slots were 1/8" too short on the fuse sides for the formers. So I cut a little off the formers to compensate. I have to admit that I miss the old style of kitting airplanes, but I guess things have to progress. Fortunately, I have been building for 25 years so I was able to make the corrections on the kit and move forward. I think it will be a nice plane to have again. I think it would be a good idea for Great Planes or whoever is in charge of production quality of Goldberg kits to take a moment from time to time to make sure the kits are top notch and correct any problems that there might be. I will always be a "Builder" of kits, but sometimes an ARF will get you in the air quicker. Just food for thought for kit makers.