I flew my hobbieco supperstar 40 today for the second time in as many days. A club traner via buddie box was helping me learn to fly. I took over at an altitued of about 125' at half throttle,I flew it about 100 yards and the wings folded.The traner took over cut throttle and tryed to fly it down,to no avial.Ofcourse its totaled.The wing comes as a two piece to be epoxed together by the builder.Upon examination of the joint my epoxy work held,but it is very evident that the wing was not glued corectly at the factory.The sandwich of the adjacent rib had little glue applied,and this is where the wing seperated.Has anyone had any experiance with Hobbieco on something of this nature.If so what do you think? Will Hobbieco replace the plane,or am I screwed.Any info will be appreciated.Thanks

Call and explain

They may have you send it in for inspection and decide from there.
If you paid with a credit card check with Your card company as to what applies to faulty goods first. And them call

Hope it helps

ditto. if you could email them some clear pics of the defective area, and explain clearly, you may not even need to ship the bird back. I have had good experiences with them before by sending pics only. My investment in a digital camera has paid off ! Good luck............

Did you use a wing joiner? I tried to re-epoxy a together that had broken in half and it failed on the first flight because I didn't think the wing joiner would be that big of a deal and I didn't cut it out ot replace it or use another. Lesson learned on my part.
Here is a pic of my wing after the second failure. I Have cut the wing joiner out now as I intend to fix it again. On mine the epoxy joint held firm it just ripped the wing rib out of the wing.

try fiberglassing the wing joint. it makes lot of diff.

I have a superstar. Did you insert the steel bar into the wing halves during assembly? If you didn't use the bar, you're probably not gonna get your money back as hobbico would judge that to be failure to follow the directions. Best of luck

There is no metal to be installed.In my prints or in the box,it calls for a wood joiner,which I installed.Yes Im sure if I glassed the wing together It would of held,but why spend all that time and money buying mat,white covering,then red.yellow and blue trim tape.This was supposed to be an ARF not a kit.There are at lest 6 other super stars in my club none have had to glass theirs.The plane was built exactly to instructions,but thanks for the input.I took it back to the place of purchase and they agreed it was falty workmanship at the factory.They also said that Hobbieco was good to work with .I see monday.

Zagicrasher,
Good luck I hope Hobbico takes care of you.

Johnc1go,
The ARF version comes with a wood joiner and The RTF version had a steel rod for a wing joiner. I just learned of this myself so I thought I would pass it on

I talked to Hobbieco today,all they said was ship it to them so I did.Ill know somthing buy the end of the week.Ill keep you posted

Let us know how they handle it, I hope they replace it for You"
Dan Z

I also have a Superstar 40, its been an awesome trainer. I have somewhere around a couple hundred flights on it and 2 crashes.

I have repaired the wing a couple of times and also noticed that they did not use much glue. I have put this plane through some heavy stuff and its still going strong.

I have heard great things about hobbico and that they will look at your plane and make a decision based on what they see.

Let us know what happens

Dbow

Hobbico is closely related to tower hobbies.....tower replaced my trainer after it crashed to to a radio failure. Two new servos too!!! I needed a letter from the instructor and they said ship it back...but true to their word they sent me a new one!! I hope they treat you right.

Hobbico is surely related to Tower Hobbies as they own them. Hobbico also owns Great Planes. At least that's the scoop I got at my LHS. Take if for what it's worth.

Tower Hobbies, Hobbico, Hobby services, GP, HobbyTown USA ???
Some more but don't remember.

I have a RTF superstar where the wings are held together with a steel bar and two screws through a small metal plate. No epoxy at all. Flew a bunch last year with crashes but the wing never folded during flight. There must be a difference between the ARF and RTF versions.

Hoppy, I have the same airplane and I would strongly suggest that you take apart the wing halves, leaving in the steel bar and epoxy them together. The stresses of normal flying are such that eventually the holes in the wing ribs that take the steel bar will begin to egg out and you might be looking at a structural failure in the future. Just my thoughts, I don't presume to be an expert.