Hi folks,

I feel it’s necessary to add some contrast to the ongoing online assault directed at Duralite Flight Systems, its owner Jack Price and the tech and support staff.

I have known Jack since I started in this hobby many years ago, long before he purchased the Duralite Company from the previous owner. I have found him to be a complete gentleman in both our personal and business relationship. He has been very supportive of my efforts to transition from glow to electric power and provided lots of information to make the transition as seamless as possible.

It has also been my experience that he has and will go beyond the norm to help solve issues and make things “right” when and if he can. Sometimes there are issues related to design or construction of products that he carries that they must deal with to ensure a quality product. These products are designed and assembled by humans and, even with tight quality controls in place, things can and do go sideways… just like most things in life.

How we react to these situations is the key to resolving them. Direct contact via e-mail or phone will usually provide 99% of the users with information and subsequent resolution to problems that may from time to time come up.

Sometimes the problems are created by the end user due to inadvertent and unintended mishandling. (discharged, dropped, mis-charged, etc.) Hey even I have damaged packs when I accidentally touched the leads together. It can and does happen.

The suggestion that these A123 packs started to badly deteriorate once the packaging was taken off does create some questions. I am no “expert” on batteries or the cause of some of the problems people have had but this does seem a bit strange. The pictures appear to show thermal venting of the cells due to overcharging which according to my source, was caused by the customer admitting that he charged them the same as his LiPo packs. (Same chargers) This created the outcome shown.

I suspect there will be little comment from Duralite as they deal with these types of issues. They simply cannot be brought down to the level of arguing online about individual customer issues every time someone cries foul.

The customer in question has, after speaking directly with Jack, moved past this issue and I think it’s time we did the same. Let’s raise the bar on this thread and stop the verbal barrage pointed at these people.

As I am also good friends with Mark in Tech support and Robyn in Reception/Accounting I am dumbfounded by comments from fellow RC types of the “Bad People” label. I can assure all of you that nothing could be farther from the truth.

Dave Reaville