All I have heard are horror stories about problems with the 80" Lanier Cap 232. Does anyone out there have one that was constructed correctly? Whats it take to make them airworthy?
Thanks,
JB

Well the first one I saw in the box was real bad. The fuse was warped like a horse shoe. The second one was alot better. I know a guy that has one with a fpe 3.2 with one season on it and he's had no problems. As a matter of fact it's for sale. I think he's asking 1350.00 less reciever, hitec digitals, rocket city hardware.

I have been flying the Lanier Cap 232 for about six months and am very pleased with it. There were many things which required fixing during assembly of mine. Most of the fuse required re-gluing. The horizontal stab did not align properly with the fuse and wing. In fact the instructions do not even mention checking the wing or stab incidences. The hing holes in one side of the stab were drilled incorrectly. Finally the plane came out heavier than I was hoping. I am an experienced builder so all of the problems were easy to fix except the weight. All in all it is the nature of the beast with ARF's you have to assume that the plane was not built as well as you would have done and check EVERYTHING. You may get lucky and not have to fix anything. At any rate you will be airborn faster than building a kit. Mine is flying at 17.3pounds with a Moki 2.1 and even at 5400 feet where I fly I have adequate vertical for IMAC sportsman and it lands at a reasonable speed.

Here's what I had to do (check all these)

-fix both wing incidence (way out)
-cut stab so that it will fit in saddle (not even close)
-fix stab incidence (way out)
-recover part of tail section to cover all the fixing
-reglue too many loose things to mention here (especially antirotation rings)
-fix cowl ring (broken)
-rehinge left aileron (hinge holes off)
-fix cowl (fine cracking on it that will surely get worse)

Looks fine now and I think it will fly well but I had to fix too many important things for what the kit cost. Mine also has many dents in it and a white hazing on the canopy.

All in all I am not impressed.

Do not waste your money on this junk! There are too many quality ARFs out there. It may fly fine but I would'nt know, I am still fixing all of Laniers mistakes.

1. The cowl's paint was blistered and I peeled it off with my fingers almost entirely down to the bare fiberglass, it stuck only at the seams where some filler was used.

2. There appears to be a shortage of glue everywhere on this plane! The ply plate the horiz stab bolts to was not glued at all.

3. The canopy had a molding imperfection that should have been caught in "Quality Control".

4. The elevator and rudder beveled surfaces were off and the hinge holes were not aligned. The hinge pockets were way too big, the hinge pins were floating in the holes.

5. It is over built, especially in the tail. I've removed 4 ozs from the tail alone so far.

6. Two of the anti-rotation pins in the wing were loose and could be rotated. Two of the anti-rotation doughnuts fell off in the fuselage (Probably a good thing since the wing incidence seems to be a problem with these planes).

7. The cowl seems too be too small for the fuselage. There is a 3/16" lip at the bottom of the cowl that is very unattractive. Check out the picture on the front of the instructions and you'll see it. (Download from their website)

8. The elevator trailing edge is about 2" forward of the rudder hinge line. Most Caps have it even with the hinge line and Lanier's instructions show it exactly this way on page 5. I do not know if mine has been modified for some reason or it is just another thing to fix.

I have completely decovered the fuselage and stabs while in the process of fixing everything.

I'm still finding other problems this ARF has thru RC forums like this one.

If you have to have a Lanier Cap buy the kit not the ARF, you'll do less building that way!