Hey Goirish
Like Ari said, aussiesteve and I had a long qa and qc list that we followed. The engines that came from our distribution channels were checked and checked again. Your engine will be a good one. We are putting our names on that! You have our number....We will do everything possible to make you happy.
Both of us worked with the factory and relayed issues and opportunities. To a degree they listened and the brand name did grow in popularity.
Where they made the big mistake was in thinking if one distributor is good, then 6 (or more) are even better. It is not.. .this was pure and simple greed on their part to get as much profit into their factory as possible. I have nothing against those distributors who came on line after me. They did so under the best intentions but with false expectations from the factory. My qc was superior on the engines that I sold and my customers rarely saw the problems that other buyers of the rcgf engines saw. The problem was that ALL of us were being painted with the same brush.
The engines being imported into the US by Chinese businesses (not the factory but trading companies) are in my opinion, second rate. That is why the pricing was so good. The engines were problematic. Thing is, that many of these same engines were being sold to the other USA distributors too, and these fella's didn't realize this until it was too late for some. Even Steve and I were burned by this with some of the shipments!!!!!
So all the work that I did with aussiesteve in ensuring the quality was there, pretty much went out the window.
In the beginning, going back a couple of years, the engines had a different pedigree. When Steve and I got together with rcgf, both of us independently did a lot of engineering work on the engines to see if what was there was worth the effort. Both of us ran engines for several hundred hours apiece, and did tear downs and we were impressed. We still have these engines and they are still running well. They were what we based our decision on becoming distributors. We still think that the 20cc, 45cc and 52cc Twin are winners. They were our best selling engines and rightly so. They had our influences in them and the factory knew that we demanded a high quality product. Steve and I were very high maintenance distributors. We were in touch with the factory on a consistent basis. We provided a lot of guidance and advice. We fed back user experiences and what they liked and what they felt was needed. We wanted them to succeed.
That is why engines that we distributed were #1. We were committed to providing the best product. Not to belabor a longer story, but when Steve and I felt that we could not attach our names/reputations to these engines, we made our exit. He and I still stand by the engines we distributed. Heck, I am darn proud of what we accomplished.
So now we went our own way. We are taking our own advice and experiences as engineers and long time rc fliers and producing engines that will be best in class. We will put the YD-A engines up with all other engines (especially the asian made ones). We already know the results. Once these engines become publicly available, we URGE the guys to make the comparisons......and make their comparisons public.
The birth of the YD-A engines came about because of the experiences we had with the rcgf engines and personnel and the knowledge that we can do a couple of magnitudes better - and we are!!!!! GAME ON...
Sincerely
Henry