I just about finished the build of my F-18F "Bounty Hunter" that replaced the late "Diamond Back" I had before. I can see a marked difference in this newer one versus the other one which was one of the first 10. I feel there is much improvement with airframe weight and gluelines, formers being much straighter. After seeing the inside more closely from the wreckage of my other 18, it seemed more than adequate in structural integrity and would be more than enough for normal flight maneuvers. I lost mine from a flameout, caused by fuel starvation (caved in UAT) and missed the runway by maybe 20 ft. and went into very rough ground. But, as Oliver and others have noted before, the pure inertia of this heavy plane caused considerable damage to the airframe when it hit which I was not surprised of at all. I looked at wing structure, fuse structure, how the fuse joints at the wings and formers faired...and I was impressed! The only part I was a bit surprised at was the very back of the fuse around the vertical fins and Stabs was "egg shelled" but again, I think the inertia had much to do with that.

To say all of this, I have had several flights on the F-18 and with the input from Oliver, David Searles and Kevin Marks and a few others, this is a good airplane and they make good airframes IMO. I assume it is competative enough environment for them to take care of things "under the skin" BY NOW, that what I get in the box is then up to me to add mine and othersbuilding skills to make the package complete! I have had Airworld products with much less structure and was told by them "you Americans don't know how to build planes", expecting us to do things that they have not done.

Saying all of this, I like the FEJ planes. I am not an engineer like Oliver but I was a General Aviation pilot and can understand basic physics and load dynamics BUT I do depend on good threads to help me GET R DUN! These threads are my manual,so to speak. I like James, I like Eric, I like the pricing, I like the fact that while most of our "usual jet suppliers" have not been willing to go BIGGER, these guys have and have proven there is a GIANT JET market out there. I do not like EDF nor the smaller scale stuff.

I just bought the 1/5.5 F-16 in "Artic Aggressor" from my good friend "Whodaman" in CA. Can't wait! I know there are gear issues and wing questions...BUT, I am looking forward to the project and flying their planes.

Rex