I have been putting together my Viper 500 tonight. I found that when I was putting in my servo tray that it was slightly to narrow to make a good joint. I had to glue thin strips of balsa on the ends to make the tray slightly wider. I also have done my usuall trick of replacing the hardware with uprated gear. All this got me thinking. I have put together or in the stages of putting together 4 ARF's in the past year or two. All of them have needed some modifying to make them work correctly. My cloud dancer needed modifying of the undercarrage mounts to make them strong enough, my seamonster needed me to make my own servo tray because mine was missing. My seagull edge needed a lot of work to get the wing joint neat and strong and my viper needed the servo tray mod. All these planes needed more work than I have listed but you get the idea. I almost always replace the hardware and fuel tank in any ARF.
My question is has anyone put together an ARF 100% as per the plans and did not require even the slightest mod to make it work / fit better. I would be very interested to hear the results.

My ExtremeFlight Yak and my Wildhare edge and my old Pacific Aero Edge... Great planes are notorious for needing mods.. However it is still easier and almost as cheap as building a kit.. All planes need a tiny mod here or there but my current planes were pretty straight forward with quality hardware.. Price tells the tale..

Grant, welcome to the wonderful world of ARF's, To become a good member in standing, you must now graduate to the " Hangar-9 " syndrome fraternity. YOU A"INT SEEN NUTHIN YET !!! MM.

The only plane that I have ever put together without modifying anything was my Avistar trainer. Since it was my first ARF I followed every instruction to the letter and didn't change even the hardware. Of course a couple of months later, I had to change out the fuel tank due to a leak, but otherwise everything was just out of the box. Since then, I haven't had a single plane that I haven't made modifications to, and that includes my Something Extra (kit). Even with it, I changed the landing gear, tailwheel assembly, and modified the fuel tank shelf so that I could take the tank in and out through the servo area. It just seems there is always something, no matter how small, that can be done.

If I left every Arf I've owned alone and built it as is, I seriously do not think it would make it past a few flights. I just accept it and modify whether it needs it or not. Even with the problems, its a simple fix and still saves overall building time. I also now routinely recover. The planes are nice but the color setups are horrible.

I've had a few that needed no mods at all - The Midwest Aerobat comes to mind - but most need a little touch-up here and there.

But if you think that's bad, try building a "Builder's Kit" sometime [X(]

Thats what experience does for modelers,They can see potential weaknesses in a plane
and add more wood where its needed.That was one of the things I learned as a kid watching my adult freind build his piper cub.He explaned to me that where the wing joines to the cabin.It needs more ribs at this area for strength.I wish I knew where my friend
Teo Rodriguez is today.He was such a talented person.

Just about every ARF will need a little "tweak" here and there. Hence the name ARF - Almost Ready to Fly. Any one experienced enough will go through and check the usual stuff such as: glue joints, firewall strength, landing gear strength, tail group, etc., etc. Although you have to "upgrade" the ARF's, it is still saves tremendous build time and allows you to get in there much faster. The quality of most ARF's are far superior today than they were a few years ago. We should all be thankful that we have these ARF's.

Good luck and happy flying.