I'm not complaining about the quality of arfs... and agree.. the quality is very good... more often than not better than I can do myself in terms of covering but I will say I'm a pretty good builder. But I do love showing up with a "build" or ktibash that took a few months to breathe life into and that no one else has. Often I'm the only one with a kit built plane it seems at the field. Heck.. I even built my flight box.... prebuilt was something like $30 and the kit was $25 and I needed to paint and seal it... people said i was crazy. Then again.. they're the same ones who crash their ARFs back into sticks and throw away perfectly good pieces in the trash can. I have a good supply of horns, pushrods, clevises, nuts, bolts, etc. Crazy what people will leave behind! Then again I mowed lawns for a summer to get my first Kraft KP-4A radio back in 77!

Remember when you encountered a problem how you needed to figure a way out of it rather than plunk down some $ to find a manufactured part for that specific issue. Hatch holddowns come to mind ,etc. I loved the hints and tips sections and cunninghams articles on design back then in the mags.