Best ARF I have ever bought, not cheap but really worth the money.
CZtopmodels CAP232 3D

I am not familiar with VMAR but after reading this I don't think I will look for one.
Worst was a Thunder Tiger with "Real Iron On Covering" I still think it was contact shelf paper[&:]

Best so far is a GP Space Walker.
Toughest "survived most abuse doing the learning exsperience" Avistar

Best: World Models I have built 3 of them all superb! ( with the exception of their hardware and
thats just a given)
: Hobbico Avistar
: Kyosho Majestic

Jury still out:
: Great Planes .46 U-Can-Do ( stab broke in straight and level flight 1/2 throttle)

No way no how:
: VMAR

worst - Lanier Early ARF Hawk 75" sailplane.
warped fuse
warped wing spar
defective moldings
wieght was +75% of that advertised
pin for rudder hinge weighed an ounce!!
one wing 1 inch longer than other
needed 8 full ounces of lead in nose to balance
rotten to the core

Best WM chipmunk and their cheap $70 skyraider
Sig rascal 40,Pacific aeromodels 30 tiger moth
Fair Kyosho crummy hardware and control systems (changed out to sullivan) wood and covering good too pricy however
just barely ok VMAR arrow, apache. hot rod beefed up and reglued
many joints but no flight failures ( ALL got dubro or sullivan clevises)
except the rascal and tiger moth which had good metal hardware
WHoops forgot hanger 9 cub and dymond imports ford fliver excellent
the ford even came with the extension cables for the ailerons

I guess I can't say I've had a "bad" ARF so far...

I've assembled and flown The World Models Super Frontier Senior, Super Sports 40, and two of their Cub 48s. They all look great, fly very well and have proven to be very durable and enjoyable airplanes. The only complaint I had is with some of the hardware.

I've assembled and flown a Kyosho P-51D and I love it. It went together well and flies and looks great! Unfortunately, it has shelf paper covering despite the fact that Tower Hobbies advertised it as having "real iron-on covering." I just finished assembling Kyosho's discontinued Sensation 1400 pattern ARF. The covering job on this airplane is unbelievable! The trim work has slanted checkerboard sections with multi-colored squares, all bordered with chrome stripes which are sealed down with CA or something. I would not do the covering trim work on this airplane for the price of the whole ARF! It looks to be well-made and I hope it flies as well as their Mustang.

I'm currently working on a Great Planes 1/4-scale Giles 202. This one is going together OK so far, although I've read a lot of horror stories about the durability and quality of the completed model. Time will tell.

In the shop I have an unassembled Hobbico .60-size Extra 300 AWARF. (All Wood Almost Ready to Fly) It would appear to be the lowest quality of the ARFs I've had so far. Just doing the plastic work and painting on the cowl, wheel pants and wing cover will probably take me as long as it would to assemble an entire World Models or Kyosho ARF that come with nicely painted fiberglass cowls.

From my experience so far, I wouldn't hesitate to buy any World Models or Kyosho ARF.

Good flying,
Bob Scott

Scott,

I saw that you are assembling G.P. Giles. There have been several post on mods to this airplane to help with some of the horror stories. If you need any info, I have the details on the mods with pics. Would be glad to provide if needed. Likewise, and you may have already read about this, just don't get the throws on the elevators set too aggressive to begin with. Several people have set theirs too high and had the plane snap at low speeds on final. I have had three of these myself and my son had one that he recently sold. For the dollars it's hard to beat. IMHO I think it's a great value for getting into 1/4 scale. I have a 160FX in mine and it performs very well. Very pleased with the airplane. Aim it down the runway and let it rip. Tracks straight as an arrow. On final this can be a bit tricky. Meaning, it needs about 3 clicks throttle on final to keep the speed up, but if you have too much speed it takes forever to bleed off. It will soar and keep flying down the entire runway, taking forever to settle down. This can cause you to get into trouble by eating up too much runway before touch down and then end up nosing over. Be prepared to go around until you get the feel for the right landing approach speed.

Best Hanger 9 Matt chapman Cap 232 Saito 180--Great flying with no bad habits. I have two! Next any Kyosho arf due to quality. Most arfs are acceptable with care & modifications to vital areas, firewall, ect. The only ones I will not every buy again are the shelf paper covered ones, including Kyosho, can't repair or patch that darn stuff!! My worst arf was the Value Series Hanger 9 Cessna, poor covering & flew like crap. I'm now building a Fun Aero SEa and when you think of the work and expense of building a kit of any kind we are real lucky to have these arfs IMO.


So Many Planes & So Little Time........................

Best : GP Tiger moth , Sig Rascal 40 and Big Rascal , Cermark f-16 , World models t-34, GP Shoestring , Goldberg Trainer

Average : Seagull Spacewalker II ....Bad manual but flew Ok , Modeltech Giles 202 ....Bad Covering and glue job , Vmar Vstick 40

Worst : KMP A.K.A. GSP CORSAIR Very , Very Poor construction and instructions , actually built 8 months ago and cant bring myself to fly it.


Stay away from the Corsair.........far away !!

BEST: HANGAR-9 FUNTANA-S
GOOD : SIG LT-40
WORST: No bad ones yet, thanks to RCU members advise.

My best ARF's:

EZ Zero (58" span); the best flying ARF but foam core covering is it's weakest point and it is big$$$$$
GP Ryan ST-M; the best value in a Giant Scale ARF I have ever seen.
Kyosho PT-17 Stearman; a very nice surprise for a balsa/ply ARF, a bit pricey but worth it
Sig Somethin' Extra; THE MOST excellent fun to value ratio you can find, I couldn't build the kit version for the ARF price

My worst ARF's:

Lion Models Diabolo; a cheap ripoff of EZ
Thunder Tiger trainer 60; crappy 'shelf paper' covering is the WORST


Jury still out on these 'cause I haven't started them yet:

Kyosho GeeBee Z
KMP Super Chipmunk
Jet Models' Katana (same as GSP's)

Jeff

My experience with ARF's has been wonderful. Three in particular will surprise those who hate them:

The old Cermark Sukhoi. Wonderful plane, sturdy, absolutely a flying dream. I even bought Geistware's from him (for cheap) as a backup. I know people thought they were awful, but I got mine after a friend got one and had such great luck with it. Mine's the same, and I haven't finished the spare yet. (great with a .91FX, go easy on the low rates).

Extra 300 from V-Mar. Mine has been sturdy and a good flier, and easy to repair. I even ironed some Ultracote over the sticky covering, for a patch job. Plus, two friends bought Extras, on the strength of my recommendation, and like them. Mine has over 300 flights on it.

Lanier's original plastic ARF TR-260. Yep, the plastic shell item. I learned a whole lot on this one, in about my second year. Flew great on a .46 Magnum. Not repairable after a dumb crash, but while it lasted it was great!

Another one that nobody else loves, my Global Tequila Sunris 40. Excellent plane, about 200 flights, still flies well (but underpowered on a Magnum .46, so I retired it.)

Of course, my World Models Ultimate 30 is a great flier on a .52 fourstroke. I leave it assembled, and fly it in the winter. Fits in the back of the truck just fine, minimizes the time I spend out in the cold.

And, I've had great experiences with Vector Flight / Epic.

Good luck,
Dave Olson

Don't buy-vmar VMAR Apache

Do buy- Hanger 9 and Hobbico products

Best
Global ME109 Beat the heck out of it and stayed together had a Magnum 46 in it.
Phoenix Models low wing Sonic . Easy to build and flys great.
Worst- Black Horse Models SPITFIRE elevator ripped out and plane was destroyed. <--- other comments on RCU about this.
VMAR too heavy always need much bigger engine to balance & fly. But they are durable.

Well, been working on my New Eindecker for the past few days... What a difference between my first Eindecker and this one I just baught to replace the one I crashed... Everything fit perfect on the first one... It went together fast and easy. This one was the friday at 5 arf... Lots of the glue joints are lose or half done. The wing tips don't fit right and are lose and unglued... Even the wings don't fit like the first one. Peices just don't fit right... Cowl dosen't fit right. After I tweak... twist... trim... push... pull... and glue... it will be fine, but this one is twice the work. I can see how some people get arfs and say JUNK! If this had been my first ARF from this company or just my first arf in general, I would not have been impressed. It opened my eyes a little bit to the quality control problems... For $109.00 you can't expect much I guess...

Almost finished building my first plane -- a Hangar 9 80" cub and I can't imagine the need or want for a kit besides the model not being available in ARF. At less than $200 it was a great value also. With the level of quality in this kit it's hard to justify spending any more on something else.

Like has been proven by this thread, sometimes the same manufacturer, even the same model gets a crap and a great rating.
AFAIK Phoenix and Blackhorse come out of the same factory in Vietnam. In the "Blackhorse ARF's" thread in this forum they got a beating yet often Ive read the smae model in Phoenix disguise gets rave reviews. I have a BH CAP232 and its awesome, one tiny wrinkle in the real heat shrink covering (Ive not bothered to fix it) and the crap piece of timber used for the undercart mount block which broke on the first landing in long grass is my only critisism. It fly great, is docile on landing with no snapping tendency I was so sternly warned about. Pre attached and near gapless pinned hinges are awesome too.

After reading coments about Vectorflight I acn see an Edge540 in my hanger already, pity my wife doesnt. Any Aussies have a Vectorflight model ?

It took a little more time but I finished my replacement for the eindeckerthat crashed... Even though there were some problems with workmenship glue joints etc... this one came out in the end better then the first. I've flown it a few times and it flys great... Just a fun easy to fly plane...

I also have a Sportsman Aviation WACO in the 60 sz. I have read threads where people didn't like the plane and had problems... Myself I love the plane and it has been great for me... I attached a picture and also a Video a friend did for me of it.

Video [link]http://wings-of-valor.net/uploads/BarbieBipe_250.wmv[/link]

Dave Patrick Extra 330 is by far the best arf I have put together.

H9 Edge 540 and WM FW3D were good.

Thunder Tiger 40 trainer was the worst. It was the old one with cheap covering. But it was still OK and they make a good trainer.


Randy

Best: Chip Hyde Cap-X
Good - Hangar 9 Ultra Stick
Worst- World Models Super Sportster (Warped wings, finally replaced after 3 months of bickering back and forth with them).

I like all HANGER 9 ARF,S all so far except the j-3 cub, Tricky on take-off, but excellant airframe. I,VE had bad luck with sportsman avaition f4u corsair , horzital stab failed in flite. IT,S GONE! FUNTANA 100 nice! ULTRA STICK 40 best second plane ever! PHOINEX F-20 great TOWER HOBBIES KAOS flies very good covering issues, CARL GOLDBERG TIGER 120 flies stable covering issues PULSE XT BY HANGER 9, O I love this plane! I HAVE MORE PROBLEMS WITH ENGINES.I LIKE OS , MAGNAMS, SATIOS DISLIKE EVOLUTIONS

Best experience by far: Pacific Aeromodels - edge 540T .60 and 2 Laser 200 1.20's - built well, fly great, look great, hold up great, and go together ultra fast. (12 hrs each, normal pace) good customer service.

2nd best: WM - 27% Ultimate, Extra 300S 1.6 (PW) - built well, fly great, ok hardware, well engineered.

Not bad - Seagull edge 540 - made a few recomended mods (better safe than sorry) and flew the hell out of it for 2 seasons, till I dead sticked it into the only rock (boulder) in the rough.

OK - H9 easy II trainer, ultra stick 60. good arfs, nothing to write home about.

So far so good, still building: Cermark f-16 2nd generation, TF Staggerwing - fit and finish are great on both of these planes, but i'm not done yet, so we'll see...........

Junk: havent bought a bad one yet, because i heed the advice of my LHS store manager - Roy at Aerotech knows whats up! And I get the opportunity to open and inspect before I buy. Never rolled the dice with the cmp, nitro, gsp.com and the like, its a gamble.

Ted

PS:
If you want your arfs to last, dont put the decals on them right away. Instead of spending the 14 hours decorating it after you build it, take it out, wring it out, and then, at night, when the planes asleep, sneak one or two on at a time. It'll never know........................

Best is Hanger 9, Great Planes , Goldberg and Sig. ( Not counting for the ARF's that have a few errors in there kits)

Worst is CMP, Nitroplanes, Giant Scale Planes, World Models or what ever they call themselves today. (Not necessarily in that order)


But I'm starting to believe that all manufactures have there good and bad ARF kits, I built two CMP's and I won't buy another to find out.

I never built a KMP or Arizona, so I can't comment on it.


Peter Dowling aka Luftwaffe Oberst
AMA District II # 865404
Aero Modelers Club
Pulaski, NY

sportsman aviation arfs were the worst arfs i've had. i bought 3 of them before i learned my lesson. crappy covering jobs and poor glue joints. but these were the lower end arfs. i've been told that their higher end arfs are much better quaility. they are being sold under the hobby people name now along with modeltech. i recently bought a modeltech suhkoi 29 which is fair. better covering job than sportsman aviation arfs.
the best arfs i have had are great planes, sig and goldberg in that order.