Has anyone had any experience with the Willhobby arfs on Ebay?--They seem to be really cheap.
Going cheap usually means ending up being expensive or lack of performance at the end.

I have had several. A Spitfire, an Ultimate, the Voodoo Mustang, to mention a few. For the money, even for more money, they are well built airplanes. Some of the hardware can be used, but I upgrade a lot of that on most ARFs. The tires are usually too small for the planes. The fiberglass work is very well done, as is the clear plastic. The paint matches the covering better than on most ARFs even costing much more, and the covering is done well with only minor touch-up needed. On the war birds, the paint is flat as it should be, and so are the decals (a nice touch). Don't count on much help from the manuals. They are above average, but still crap for all but the most basic of instructions. I call these builders ARFs for that reason. All in all, I would give Willhobby ARFs a 7.5 out of 10. And that isn't bad given their price.

I bought a Pole Cat from them in Nov. The covering is very nice as the color match with the cowl. The canopy is downright cheezy ( it looks good & fits good) it needs to be twice as thick. I think once flying it will flutter it's self to death. The instructions, to be nice are not much. I think an inexperienced builder might have a lot of trouble. Overall, I think it is a pretty good deal- you sure can get a lot less plane for a lot more money elseware. They build a good plane at a good price. Their shipping always seems awfully high, I think that somehow becomes part of the profit margin.

Yeah, I noticed the shipping and that has stopped me from bidding....

There is a site, www.texasrcplanes.com that seems to have several of the same models on the willhobby site. There are a few differences of course, and I am not sure if they are the "same" planes, but take a look at the site. There is aPolecat on there, not sure if it is the same one you are looking at....

T.

I was looking at a plane on ebay that had advertised shipping of $79 (not Willhobbies). Ridiculous for a NIB plane even if it is a 27% bipe. Before I bid on it, I asked if I could have it picked up on my own shipping account. They agreed. I bid and won and had it shipped to me for about $30. Haven't asked Willhobbies if they would do that yet. As someone said, they seem to use shipping to augment revenue.

I have the Spitfire and over-all for the money it's not bad. I had a problem with some distortion of the fush about where the canopy ends. I think that was mostly due to the packaging and "green fiberglass" . Put glass matt inside the firewall and fabricated a servo tray for the rudder and aileron servos just forward of the trailing edge of the wing. It helped move the weight back a little and stiffened that area where it was needed anyway. It substantially shortens the control rods, a bonus in keeping down flexing, etc.
Mine has USAAF markings and has been clearcoated due to the constant flaking of the origional paint.

I have a 120 AX on mine, worth more than the plane. A really sweet engine.

I have the seafury , posted pics , I thought the quality was above average vs competition . The cowl was thick ect , I did get a non-retract reday wing [:@]vs what i was supposed to get but i did fix it .
The original seller was newyork grace , really really bad seller , I think they are now direct ship .
There is also a FW190 being build over in warbirds you can see the quality of the plane

I've got the 71" Zero, paid about $140 for it including shipping and insurance. It's easily worth $250 as far as I'm concerned. Mine came in a huge box, well packed, no damage at all. The finish is not great (as in the paint) but it was always my intention to refinish the airplane anyway so that was not a concern of mine. I know a bunch of folks have had many, many issues with Willhobby but my experience was good. About the only negative thing I could say was that it took at least a month for delivery.

I had a Willhobby Yak 54 for a few short days. It came with several cracks in the cowl. I won it on Ebay from what I assume is the Willhobby distributor up in New York. I emailed "Anthony" and was told to send the whole kit back. I shipped it back over 3 weeks ago, and haven't heard from him since. I have emailed twice since sending it back, but no replacement kit or any response from him. I am about to start a dispute claim through Paypal to try and get my money back. I am 100% fed up with the disgusting customer service from most of the "distributors" of Chinese goods on the internet. From here on, I will try and purchase my R/C stuff from the local hobby shops. It's a shame, because the quality was very impressive. It was the first ARF I've bought that needed no touching up of the covering, and the wood and build quality was first rate. I should have suspected something when he wanted the whole thing shipped back, and wasn't willing to just replace the cowl. If anyone else has had problems with Ebay seller: "Willhobby_com" in Hicksville, N.Y. I'd like to hear about it. I'm a pretty patient individual, and if he's having a problem getting a replacement, I would understand. But I need some kind of communication to let me know what's going on. Whew!, thanks for letting me vent, here. [:@] To sum it all up: the Willhobby planes appear to be of good quality, but be careful of where you buy one from!

Jesse

No excuse for not communicating, but I would hope it was just the end of the year holiday thing that slowed the whole thing up. You would think they could just pull a few kits off the pile for parting out as needed. Given the shipping charge, you would think they could afford it.

3 weeks is a long time , I am not sure when chinese new year starts so that could be part of the problem .You will see many ebay sellers disappear when CNY starts , unless they have inventory they usually show zero on the site .

Like Chad stated I think the quality is great , the only issues i had was communication with the seller on what "retract ready meant "
I just bought a Fw 190 from Jettech , great communicator , split flaps a step above CMP/Flymodels version .
I am planning a bash with sierra retracts , IMP interior , and total paint job

wills seafury bash

I have the WiiHobby Yak 54 (1.40 size ).
I bought mine from Harris and Anderson R/C and Hobbies , e-bay name ( highresolution10 ) and my kit was perfect ( $169.00 + $30.00 shipping ).

Pros of the Yak.
Built nice and strong.
Covering was good.
Nice looking plane.
Flys great.
Good 3D.

Cons of Yak.
Control horns.
Very tail heavy.
Total overall weight.
Weak landing gear.

I put a Brillelli 36GT ( 36cc gasser ) in mine and still had to add nose weight.
I can't see this plane flying on the 1.08 that they recommend.
A 1.60FX would do it, but you still need nose weight and this adds you to the same total flying weight with what ever motor you use.
So I figured make as much nose weight as possible useful, anwser, gasser.
This plane has unlimited vertical, but is not over powered by any means.
A 40cc gasser is perfect for this plane.
I am changing the landing gear to a taller, swept forward gear.
I need the taller for a bigger prop and the swept forward for gear handling.
I can hardly even taxi with out nosing over.
The CG is set perfect, it is not nose heavy, and I can't keep it from nosing over.
The swept forward gear should fix this.
RTF dry weight is 14lbs 3oz.

Here is a link to see the Yak, mine is at the end.
( http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_44..._1/key_/tm.htm )

2robinhood,

You have the same one I bought, but had to send back. I had planned on setting it up with pull-pull on both the rudder and elevators, to get the servos out of the tail. That would also mean one less elevator servo to help with the all-up weight. After hearing about how tail heavy it comes out, my plan to use a MVVS 26cc gasser might mean adding lots of nose weight. I always run two receiver packs on the bigger planes, and those packs along with the ignition pack would all go on the engine box. I'm also using a metal anti-vibe engine mount. Hopefully all of this up front will lessen the amount of lead I have to add...that's if I ever get the plane!

Jesse

I did do a pull / pull on the rudder, but I did use two servos in the tail for the elevator.
I also use two RX packs in all my gassers.
Brillelli sells an aluminum engine mount which is the one I used.
I also have both ( 6V-1650mah ) RX batteries , the ( 4.8V-1450mah ) ignition battery, and throttle servo mounted right on the engine box and I still added 9oz of weight to the nose.
If you take the two elevator servos from the tail, this should help you with the CG issues.
Plus it will save you the weight of one servo, two servo extensions, and some of that dreaded nose wight, whitch will all help with your overall RTF weight.
Mine flys great and lands at a real slow smooth speed, even with the 14+lbs flying weight.
Oh, by the way, I couldn't stand those blue checkers on the tail.
I removed them am made my own tail color sceem.

I think the Yak would be alot for any 26cc gasser.
Large plane, high weight, lots of drag.
Wide open with the 36cc gas, it isn't fast plane.
Personally, I would say, 36cc to 45cc is what the motor range should be.
I have a CRRC GF26I turning a Xoar 18 X 6 @ 7450 and I don't thing it would be enough.
It might fly, but maybe nothing else.
If anyone has a WillHobby Yak 54, chime in with what your running and how it performs.

Nice change on the tail scheme. What's funny is that the color scheme on the Willhobby Yak is identical to the 74" Yak that Extreme Flight sells. Check it out at the bottom of this page:

http://www.extremeflightrc.com/html/74yak54.html

I also thought about changing out the stab tube to carbon and going with a Pete's Models carbon tail wheel for the sake of saving weight back there.

Jesse

I comapred the Extreme and the willHobby before I bought mine.
These aren't the same plane.
1st the extreme is a 74" wing span and the WillHobby is a 71"
2nd, Looking at the Extreme manual confirms the are not the same.
The fuselage and firewall, engine box etc are completely different.
If you look at the recommended engine size on the Extreme Flight Yak it is 1.40 - 1.80 nitro two stroke and flying weight of 10.25 - 12 lbs.
WillHobby Yak called for an engine size of 1.06 - 1.08 nitro two stroke and a flying weight of 11.25 lbs.
The Extreme has a 3" bigger wingspan, but that is only 1 1/2" at eack wing tip.
You will never notice that in size of the two plane.
As you can see, Extreme says to use a lot larger motor.
I would recommend the WillHobby Yak using the same engine range ( 1.40 - 1.80 two stroke nitro , about a 40cc gasser ).
I kind of think the lightest you could get the WillHobby Yak in a gasser would be about 12.75 - 13 lbs. and that would be having to buy and loose some stuff ( make it a single RX battery ).
I think you could maybe, maybe get lighter with a nitro burner, but the with lossing an ignition and ignition battery of the gasser you would need to add dead weight ot balance.

Where did you put the CG at, right on the wing tube? I can live with a slightly tail heavy plane, as long as it's not too tail heavy.

Jesse

I love my Willhobby Sea Fury. I bashed it a bit to get scale flaps and landing gear. Mine came with retract mounts, but I cut the bays to get scale inner and outer doors.

5 1/2" from the leading edge of wing right at the fuselage. ( which is dead center of the wing tube.
I set every plane I have at perfect level on the CG.
My plane does awsome knife edge passes both left and right.
Much better then my 30% Yak 54 does.
Here is some knife edge passes with my Ultimate 40S.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDvCy9F4-uI

rare bear , forgot to ask what was your cg

Can you tell me what was the cost for the Will Hobby Polecat? Thanks.