ORIGINAL: 804
ORIGINAL: tbirdaerospace033
From what I've seen, part of the problem is the ARF's themselves.
I was out of the hobby for a while, got back in a few years ago, put some ARF's together and have spent more time repairing ''shotty'' workmanship on the ARF's than actually flying them.
I'm going back to building kits. That way I know the glue joints are secure, and if reinforcement is needed, I can do it in the building process.
I am convinced that with average piloting skills, a kit built plane will last longer than an ARF.
I've had just the opposite experience. In six years, I've assembled, and flown the crap out of, about 25 Arfs, from small electrics to 50cc gas. 5 to 30 minutes spent checking glue joints and particularly engine mounts goes a long way. Done right the first time, I have spent very little time repairing anything I didn't cause myself.
804, tell me, how do you check the integrity of a ARF glue joint done with a hot glue gun? If you have such a technique, you could have helped prevent hundreds of Lanier Q-500 ARF firewalls from ripping out, engine and all. This type of glue fouls the surrounding wood and repels attempts to reenforce or repair it with glue of better quality.
My point here is that unless you strip the model to bare bones, there is no way that 5-30 minutes worth of pecking around an ARF is a guarantee of anything good.