Wart Hog

My Feedback: (22)

If you are thinking about buying a Hanger 9 Aresti 40, DON'T!

I purchased one and on the first flight, the fuselage came apart in the air. No Glue! Horizon took it back and sent me another, but not without a fight. They admitted there was a problem of not enough glue but told me "So what, you bought it, it's yours".

They finally sent me another and on it's first flight the horizontal stabilizer folded 2" out on both sides of the fuse! I was at 1/2 throttle with an OS 70 so it was not stressed. Horizon's deduction was that "I cut the stab when removing covering" The stab broke 2" out! How could removing the center covering cause it to break half way out on each side? It was some of the worst wood I have ever seen! Flimsy and porous.

The last crash broke my motor and destroyed radio gear,. Horizon's solution was to "sell" me a new motor! (Any opportunity for a sale.).
It will be a cold day in #$%& before I buy anything else from Hanger 9 or Horizon.
Their products are junk and their customer service is a joke!!!

Cuda

Any suggestions on prevention of you misfortune would be appreciated as I have one getting finished soon. Do you think you could test stress the stab before flying to see if it is worth trying or what.. How did the fuse come apart,firewall or wing hold down,or other. If it's a POS I might not finish it and move my new airborne gear to another platform before it goes in too....!!!Thanks
Cuda

chris100

I have a Hanger 9 aresti and have not had any problems with it. I have close to 75 flights on it and it flies great. Last sunday was my first accident with it. I forgot to change the model number on my radio and put it in. Damage was minimal and it should be flying by the weeking.

KidVermin

My Feedback: (3)

Cuda:
With all ARF's since they are production line hot glued; you need to hit the bulkhead joints with thin or medium Ca. I also
used thinned 45 min. epoxy and slosh the entire fuel compart-
ment including around the firewall. I've only had 3 ARF's (all H9's)
and they all stayed together. No worries
Randy

SINYFLY

It is a really nice flying plane. Yes, if there is any weakness on this plane it is the tail. One of the other members in my club had the same problem. One of the horizontal stabilizers broke in flight.

The good thing is that you can prevent it by installing flying wires. I put some on my plane and haven't had a problem. The wires are made of kevlar wire (the kind that you get in pull pull setups). I attached them with regular bolts and blind nuts

Blackie

I am a proud owner of one and not had any problems with it.

Blackie

Wart Hog

My Feedback: (22)

Cuda,
My fuse sides seperated from all of the formers and the wing hold down plate was attached to one side only. It was a wild ride all the way in!
The Tech support at Horizon said there is no problem with the Aresti 40 except the fact that we don't know how to build them.

I have been building kits, scratch building and "assembling" ARFs for 15 years and it really rubs me wrong when some kid at Horizon Tech Support tells me I don't know what I'm doing.
Then on top of that, I read the post from SINFLY saying others have had the same problem as me and Horizon is telling me there is nothing wrong.
Seems to me Horizon should just suck it up and admit there is a problem, apologize and fix it instead of blaming the builders.

I have a few club members who have the Aresti 40's and were waiting to see what response I recieved from Horizon.
After my conversation with Horizon today, they are all taking them back and getting their money back.

I'm glad some people like Chris 100 are getting their money's worth out of this plane, but I can't afford to keep destroying engines, radios and hardware while Hanger 9 uses us as Lab Rats for their new designs!
Epoxy, props and CA cost money.
You are supposed to have the same number of landings as you have take offs, but this hasn't happened yet with this plane.
It's up to you Cuda, but I'll never own another one and after the way I have been treated by Horizon I am selling the rest of my Hanger 9 planes as well!!!

LSP972

My Feedback: (13)

Charles,

A pal has one of these with no issues. It is actually a very nice model that I wouldn't mind owning. Sounds you got a couple that were built on the Chinese equivalent of a Friday or Monday...<G>

When dealing with Horizon, you have get farther up the food chain sometimes. They do employ some college kids, etc., who are just there for the paycheck and don't know (or want to know) squat about the hobby.

I have run across several of these; one actually tried to take his job seriously and attempted to BS me on something. Gotta give him credit for trying...<G>

Anyway, whenever I come across this, I just politely blow the person off and get one of the "suits" on the phone. It may take a couple of days. I know, sometimes the extra cost of phone calls and aggravation isn't worth it, and you say to hell with them, I'll never buy anything else from THAT company. I know that feeling well; got several T-shirts to prove it.

But Horizon generally stands behind their products and will do what it takes to satisfy a customer. Get hold of one of the customer service types; the "techs" don't have much, if any, authority to do anything.

Steve

Wart Hog

My Feedback: (22)

Thanks Steve,
I'm going to give them another try on Monday. The first Aresti I had came apart and the tech's answer was "So What!".
Really! Those were his exact words.
I have other Hanger 9 planes I fly, but when a manufacturer tells you "so what" after spending the kind of money we do on their products, one starts to consider where he should spend his money.
I have recieved e-mails from this thread telling me they have had the same problems with their Aresti 40 planes and they had let Horizon know. When I asked, Horizon informed me that this was the first they had heard about this. I am not real fond of being lied to.
I'll take your suggestion and try to move up the food chain..........

LSP972

My Feedback: (13)

>

You sure you weren't talking to...never mind.<G>

When you finally get to talk to someone with some horsepower, I would report that. Be nice about it, but emphasize how turned off you were, your first inclination was to dump Horizon as a company whose products you use, etc., etc.

There's no excuse for that sort of rudeness and uncaring attitude. While there ARE a couple of companies that specialize in this sort of "customer service" (one is a current topic of discussion on this forum), Horizon isn't one of them. Through several major incidents, I have yet to encounter a bad attitude. They were always friendly and polite.

We have pretty much flown my pal's Aresti (with a TT 46 Pro) as hard as it can be flown without crashing it. It is an excellent model that he says went together easily and with no issues. Of course, it might shed a wing, etc., tomorrow. But so far it has been an excellent value for the money.

Good luck with Horizon; let us know how you fare. If this was a radio problem, I'd know who to tell you to contact. But I have no clue who the ARF airplane "straw boss" is.

BTW, I have no particular love for Horizon, I don't work there or for them, and in fact have some issues with several things they do/have done. But we should be objective about these things. My track record with them regarding product problems has been excellent. That's why I continue to buy their products.

Steve

F900

My Feedback: (2)

I have one, and have had no problems at all. 4th hanger 9 aircraft. What was the first name of the guy who said 'So what" , dealt with HH Techs and they have always been helpfull.

Wart Hog

My Feedback: (22)

I didn't think to get his name at the time, but I am dealing with Pete now. Nice enough guy but talked to me like I was a novice at this building thing. I know they don't know our back ground when we call.
I really wish I would have gotten the first guy's name. I called back the next day after thinking about that guy telling me "So what" and tried to get in touch with him again but they put me with someone else.

I have a couple of other Hanger 9 planes and have yet to have a problem with them, it's just this Aresti 40......

Wart Hog

My Feedback: (22)

OK, here is the story from Hanger 9.
Shane, the customer service manager informed me today that not enough of the Aresti planes have crashed to set a trend of the stabilizer breaking, so apperantly it's not really happening.
They are pulling a kit from inventory and taking it to reaserch and development and having it completly gone through before they ship it to me to insure there is no problem with it.

We'll see how it goes.......

aero

Wart Hog,
Did you ever get a response from H9 that met with your satisfaction?

Rod

Kitbasher

I think most ARF are held together by the covering be it shelf paper, Ultracote , Monocote ,or what ever. Might want to build a plane you cant blame on someone else.

MANFRED

My Feedback: (27)

Kitbasher,
Not everyone has the time (some of us are actually part of the work force) to dedicate the sometimes hundreds of hours it takes to complete a great flying and great looking kit. Given the amount of money you spend on these ARFs, it is only assumed you will be getting a product that merely does what it intended to do, FLY! I have read way too many threads on the deficiancies of Hanger Nine products ie; Edge 540, Cap.. etc., that I would surely steer clear of them.
Maybe, when I'm a bit grey, I will have the luxury of countless hours with nothing to do but build planes. Till then ARFs are perfect.

wbrian

Wart Hog
Sorry that you had such bad luck with your Aristi. Perhaps it was built on a monday- ha ha. Have to say that the Aristi although not perfect (its an Arf) I found it to be a great flying plane. It's also built better then most ARF.

Kitbasher

I might have a few gray hairs but ,I am 41 work 8 to 5, 5 days a week at least I do have an ARF. I dont want to preach to any one but it is mass produced stuff. Its just instant gratifcation dont be to up set. Its not like the one you might spend your time on some day when you get a chance. The thirll of your work flying is more of a rush than monatary lose. Iam sorry for any ones lost airplane.

stevta

My Feedback: (1)

Manfred...Something to think about...
Sig SE kit $75
Sig SE ARF $199
You are paying an extra $125 for for the ARF. It takes about 30 hours to put this one together. I understand that alot of people don't have 30-60-90-200 hrs to build from a kit but what we all might consider is that there are probably members of our clubs that would be glad to put together a kit for you.
For example, most clubs have some retired folks that either have extra time or could use some extra cash. Or they would gladly put together a kit if you gave them two so they could put one together for themselves to sell or fly.
Maybe we should all be mindful when complaining about the quality of ARFs that we could be doing our club members a service if we got them to build our planes for us. I think it might be a great resource we have been over looking in our desire to fly a plane we don't have time to build ourselves.
Just food for thought...
Steve

KidVermin

My Feedback: (3)

The only Arf that I thought was subpar was the H9 value series
Cherokee. The covering was close to that of shelf paper. One
day at the field in starting the plane I dropped the ni-starter, and
it went thru both top and bottom of the wing. That was the only
neg. out of the 4 or 5 I've owned. ANY of the production line ARF's
-- take the time ( maybe one hour ) and Ca / epoxy all joints. For
some reason the hot glue doesn't bond that well to the lite-ply.
Enjoy the ARF's for what they are -- a shortcut to get you in the
air with minimum construction -- but don't put all the blame on the manufacturer.

NM2K

My Feedback: (14)

I started flying R/C in the sixties. There were no CA or five minute epoxy glues back then. The kits were mostly atrocious and required the building of ribs in some instances. We persevered, we built, we flew. People with no time to build did not fly, unless they were rich enough to buy used models, most of which had severe problems or they wouldn't have been sold.

If you want something that will hold up to serious flying and will meet a critical eye, pay one of the many builders available to build you a real model. You'll not get anything worth a damn for just the price of a normal kit and covering, as most ARFs are priced today.

Yes, I fly ARFs these days too. No interest in breathing balsa dust anymore. Damned ARFs...

Wart Hog

My Feedback: (22)

Hi Guys, Well Horizon sent me another Aresti Kit. They still contend that there is no problem with the horizontal stab though.

I have recieved info that hobby shops across the country are taking these planes back because of this.
Oh, by the way, when I recieved my new Aresti 40, I promply traded it off.

dcknowles

Okay, after reading this thread I will install flying wires on my Aresti before I take it up for the first time.

But I don't understand flying wires. If the horizontal stabilizer folded UP, then the flying wires won't prevent that--they'll just buckle in. Or are the flying wires installed under the plane as well?

Or does the horizontal stabilizer always break downward?

Thanks in advance.

Ian-RCU

What a load of rubbish you people put out about poor quality ARF. Other companies make decent Arfs for your buck. If you dont complain of post complaints on the web they will still sell you crap. All I read is whinning excuses from people who seem to think that when you buy a product you have to spend time rebuilding and reinforceing it.
If you bought a new car and had to the same type of repairs before you could drive it you would ***** to the manufacture!!!!!!!!
Ian

Blackie

I no longer have mine as it met its demise due to poor balance, (stalled the tail) anyway when you are removing the cover from the glue areas do not use a knife, instead use a solder iron and melt the cover off, this way if something does happen the manufacture can't put the blame on you. For those of you that do not know this trick its simple. Make your mark as you would normally, measure 1/16" inside the line and make your cut by moving the tip slowly down the cover, no scaring in the wood this way.

Blackie