Hi,I bought my son a used seagull laser 200 (oops) anyway on it's test flight the entire top of the wings covering blew off.My fault for not taking the time to build him a good plane.

Wow, those lasers are built well inside now recover and inspect the covering lines real good this time (and check your shoestrings too!!![X(])

wow that is a trip!

Ouch.....at lease you got her down, good job..........as with all Arf's you need to go over the entire planes covering with an iron and pay special attention to the seams. I do a seams check as part of my pre flight check at home.....it only takes a min to catch a oiled loose seams. I also agree with Gjeffers that's one nicely built wing structure.

i have a tower hobbies kaos .40 that did that. but it was not used but new. the covering on the top of the wing came loose on the 2nd flight.. i got it down in one piece. i re- treated the wing with a light coat of balsarite and ironed it back down. that is one of my biggest gripes about arfs is the the covering jobs from the factory are poor. the coverings are heat oven shrinked on and the glue does not adhere to the wood.

Made in China with .50 cents an hour labor & covered in Genuine ChinaCote
What could be better? Gota Luv them Chinese ARFs

I ALWAYS iron down all covering edges before beginning contruction of any A.R.T.F.
It's the first, and one of the most important jobs to do.

Time is money to the manufacturers. They don't (can't) press the edges of the covering properly beacause it would double the
covering time. So, you have to do it. As well was putting extra cyno on firewall, u/c fixing plate, wing fixing plates.

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Let us know what the distributor/importer does in terms of compensation. You could just as easily lost your engine and radio, not to mention the model.


Ed Cregger

The model was purchased used......why in the world would anyone expect compenastion?

I guess it goes to show that they aren't really almost ready to fly. Shame that they don't take the extra time to seal the edges, or offer it in an ARC version. No one will do it as well as you will.

Bill, AMA 4720
WACO Brotherhood #1

Don't let the facts get in your way
Actually made in Vietnam and covered with Ultracote if it is like my Seagull planes... Seagull and Pheonix are some of the best buys out there IMHO

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I missed the fact that it was used - although I'm sure that if the model had been in an accident due to the loss of covering and the model injured or killed someone, you can bet that the importer of that model would have been sued and probably would have settled out of court.


Ed Cregger

Hi Ed; Unfortunately you are correct, but that is the world we live with these days.

Most of my recent ARFs: GP, H9, etc. have had wrinkles to deal with before they were flown for the first time. You can't expect a kit that has been shipped to the U.S. all the way from Asia and then stored for who knows how long in a warehouse, to be "ready to fly" right out of the box, especially the covering. Most manuals ask you to use a sealing iron and/or heat gun to tighten any loose or wrinkled covering, and that's exactly what I always do. By the way, I had a Laser 200 and other than the initial re-tightening of the film, never had any issues with the covering.

Guys, I've seen the exact same thing happen, except the guy lost his plane and it was a kit built hog bipe that he spent 8 months building. Let's start taking some responsibility, and double check whats been done for you already, and stop bashing the arf manufacturers. Either that, build your own, that way you can only blame yourself. I happen to have several seagull planes, and I will tell you they have probably the best covering of them all.

Oh good grief, always someone willing to take things way over the top

Guys, what's not to love? Look how easy it is to get to the aileron servo and wiring.

And the wing construction looks fantastic... What a beautiful job...