Some people, like me, enjoy building, and find this as good a part of the hobby as the flying, hence my avoidance of ARFs (in fact at my club we have one member who only flys because we twisted his arm. He really likes building, and was happy with that, and very nice planes he builds to)
Some people don't like building, or feel they don't have time, so for them ARFs are the perfect solution.
Some people are happy with either, and buy what they want if they see a plane they like, arf or kit or plan.
And others go in for big scale projects which take a year or three, and they buy ARFs as sport flyers so that they have something to fly while the big project is being built.
Which ever bracket you fall into, the important thing is that you enjoy it.
For me, building kits is "cheaper" as it takes me two to six months to complete each one. If I just built ARFs I would probably get through at least one a month, making the cost go up.
The majority of my building is done in the evenings during the week. Tonight I have built the fin and rudder for the GP Cap 232 I'm currently building, and did the first bit of covering, on the elevators. I also build at the weekends if the weather prevents flying, and I'm not doing anything else.
Ultimately it is difficult to compare like with like. I can think of very few planes that are both a kit and ARF from the same manufacturer:
GP Extra 300s 40 size is one. $90 as a kit, $190 as an ARF. Any one had both?
Goldberg Ultimate is another. $170 as a kit, $330 as an ARF.
I have had the kits of both. I would not say that the extras I had to buy (mainly the covering) was not equal to the price difference, which makes sense as they have not been pre-assembled for free.
Fortunately, I'm having tomorrow off. I plan to fly in the morning, have some lunch, then build in the afternoon. A perfect day...
