Dear Prospective Customers, I recently returned from a 3 week trip to China where I performed a quality control inspection on 800+ aircraft. I regret to inform you that a majority of the aircraft failed to pass my criteria. I apologize to those of you who have been waiting patiently for these aircraft to arrive. However, I will not bring products into this country that are inferior. My goal is to provide my customers with the highest quality, best performing ARF aerobatic aircraft on the market-period! I am taking a huge hit financially by rejecting these aircraft, but I refuse to tarnish my reputation so early on in the game. I extended my stay in China in order to visit other manufacturers and I feel confident that I have found the best factory to execute my designs. These aircraft are really something special, as anyone who has flown one will verify, and I will not bring poor quality versions of them to the United States. I will be bringing in 200 of the 60" Edge 540T profiles which are built to my specifications, as well as a small number of 85" Extra 300LXs. These aircraft should arrive late October and will be shipped immediately to those who have placed orders, in the order they were received. The new factory will be working diligently to build new versions of my original offerings including the 85" Extra 300LX, the 85" Edge 540T, the 87" Yak-54, the 125" Extra 300LX, and the new 68" Yak-54. The original factory will completely re-build the 65" Extra 300LX. I hope to have all of these aircraft available early next year.
Again, I apologize to those of you who placed your orders early on and have been waiting so patiently. Please contact me at 678-546-3670 if you need to cancel your current order. To those of you who have sent me cash deposits, please contact me at the above number and I will make arrangements to return your money. To those of you who have current orders and are willing to wait this out, I will offer you a 15% discount on the aircraft when they arrive.
While this has been a disturbing event, I believe in my designs and their ability to outperform anything on the market. I promise to continue to pursue my original goal of providing you, the aerobatic enthusiast, with the best aerobatic ARFs available.
Best Regards,
Chris Hinson
President
Extreme Flight RC

Chris:

On not bringing inferior products into the USA, good for you!

On the disappointment of the quality of the planes, bummer.
(Actually it down right sucks, but you made a good decision.)

Although I will have to call and cancel my order, I still feel that you intend on bringing a great plane here to the States and I will certainly be one of your customers in the future when the problems are ironed out. My sincerest good luck to you.

A tough decision chris, but Im sure you will be respected for it. I hope Im still in the pot for the 60"edge FF. It's been a while since I called you. I really wasnt expecting the big yak before christmas anyway.

so let me get this straight...it will be a few months before i could get the 120 sized extra?

This is correct.

Sorry to hear about that Chris. I really respect the fact that you are a man of principle! When the 87" yaks get here I will be placing an order. Guys like you are hard to come by in the business world and should be patted on the back for making the right decisions...
All the best
Al Renkel

while this may suck, I believe this is NOT the forum to advertise this in?

Todd

Sorry to hear about this. I do respect and appreciate your commitment to quality, though.

One question-- what happens to the 800+ ARF's that you rejected? I'd be happy to take one and not hold the quality against you!

what were some of the dissappointments?

Yeah, what were the problems, and what other companies does this factory manufacture for? I hope you don't see 800 of your planes showing up on fields with someone else's brand on them!

Commendable decision! Your in a tough spot Chris...kind of a lose-lose situation. Nevertheless, once that 68" Yak becomes available I'm hopping in line to get mine! Good luck!

Thanks for the positive input regarding my decision guys. I received several production samples from the company and was pleased with them all. I decided to play it safe and do a final check on the aircraft before they were shipped. Thank God I made this decision. I would really be in trouble if I had all of these aircraft shipped to me in the States. Issues that I had with the planes included crooked fuselages, poor parts fit, and a general disregard for quality workmanship. I threw away 600 sets of stabs/elevators because the counterbalances and trailing edges did not line up. Needless to say, I was very depressed. But I must move on and put this behind me. Nothing worth doing is ever easy. This manufacturer produces aircraft for several other U.S. ARF companies as well as several in Europe. I cannot mention these companies due to possible legal ramifications, however I will spill the beans if they refuse to make things right with me. I will keep my eyes open for any of these aircraft entering the U.S. market and will expose them immediately, as well as taking immediate legal action.

cool I will gladly take that 15% discount off of my Profile.

I was getting worried, about the quaility. As long as the quality is great, it is worth waiting for.

I think your starting your company on the right track. I think a lot of companys are putting out products they poor quality. IMO they seem like they jump from plane design to plane design and never put out a great product. They just put out a product thats good enough to get by, but never that is top notch.

Keep up the good work.

Chris,


Very sorry about the issue. I feel your pain... It must be hard to deal with such a deception. However I admire your decision about quality. Hang on chris and I look forward to get one of
your plane when they become available.

Serge

Chris;
Sorry to hear about the substandard issues for your line. I know everyone is excited for them to show on the market but as everyone states its better to wait and deal with 5% flaws than deal with 50% flaws. I'm currently on your list for the 87" YAK and will wait it out for it is a unique and beautiful aircraft.
Questions are:
1. Is the company you are dealing with going to rebuild planes to your specs or are you going with a new company?
2. Do you have a time frame (approx!) for the new release?
I know you had to front a tremendous amount of capital for the project and this is an extreme setback so will it affect your pricing(given you go with the same company!)?.

Thanks for your time.

Sam

Hi Chris,

When you did not arrive home from China on schedule I figured something was wrong and that the Yak-54 would be delayed. No worries though as I am content to wait for a quality product. I also really appreciate the 15% discount offer. So please -- keep my pre-order on the books!

Last week I bought a RTF Aeroworks 29% Edge to hold me over until the Yak arrives...

Sorry to hear about the problems, but you have made a wise decision that you will be respected for in the long haul. As for my 65" Extra order....I am with you all the way.

Mike

I will wait for the yak chris...good luck...

Anurag Saraf

WOW...this is something you don't see everyday...a distributor that has given us a behind the scenes look into what they really face when it comes to what he/she will accept as a standard we here in USA will accept. My thanks and admiration go out to Chris and I hope Chris all the success people like him deserve.

Great to see the support for what Chris is doing.

I look at it as just a little delay in getting the best planes in their class over here to the states.
The planes will speak for themselves when they get here!

I just wish all importers of ARF's had this kind of integrity. A while back I assembled a 1.20 sized ARF and when the trailing edge of the elevators were lined up in the neutral position one counter balance was 3/16 inch above the Ele. leading edge and the other was 1/8 in below the leading edge. I won't mention the name but the initials are GP G202 ARF. [:'(][:'(]

RJ

Chris,

When you have them build it do you have like an assurance that it will be built right and that they pay you back for the inproper building? To me that just seems like they really screwed you there. Can't wait when you get them out!

Steven

Chris that's extremely commendable. I understand that you want to offer the quality you promised and I'm willing to wait as long as it takes. There are already too many shoddy built arfs on the market now. TWO THUMBS UP. I'll be checking your sight periodially for the YAK's. Hang in there guy. Thanks for not throwing a bunch of crap out into the market!

.

While I personally commend Chris for what he is done, I don't understand why everyone is getting excited for him scrapping the bad ARF's.

"This should be a norm, not just an exception"

When we are asked to pay high $$$ of our hard-earned money, we should demand the best.