I wanna buy a plane but i'm afraid of discontinue it in for example...3 years. Can anyone recommend a plane that is good and famous and the possibility of discontinue that model is zero? For example, the Yack 54, how many years there is in the market?

That's the risk we take. As long as we are at the mercy of what china sends us. Though the only problem with discontiued arf's is main wing and fuse sections

basically stick to the big companies. Great Planes, Hangar 9, Sig. Carl Goldberg and top flite. Most of there kits have been around for decades.

Have you learned to fly a trainer yet?

tower trainer I learned in this 18 years ago. the trim has changed but the model hasn't

redfox is correct. Kits and ARFs are discontinued all the time, with no advance notice.

If you want a source for ARF spare parts, you should buy two and use the second for any parts you need. With kits, you can make templates of the parts (if they are not shown full size on the plans) and make what you need.

What about the giant scale? Just asking. Are the models in giant scale being dicontinued?

Yeas, i can fly, no problem. I just need some help on the maintenance section, that's all

as long as the production costs to sales ratio is showing enough of a profit they will make it....when the ratio falls to a certain point or they need the product line for something with a bigger profit margin then the model will be history.....Who knows

It seems that every plane I purchase is discontinued within 3-6 months no matter the vendor.

Purchasing from Great Planes or Horizon is no guarantee ( I have a NICE GIANT U-Can-Do for instance purchased last year... try to get parts for that now! ).

Your best bet is to learn to do your own repairs.

IMHO Balsa planes are - MUCH - easier to repair then foamies and fiberglass planes.

As long as you can obtain similiar covering ( and even when you cannot, there is always a solution ), you can repair just about anything.

The problem is not the repair, but the time involved.

Some plane crashes are not worth it for me to repair. In those cases I pull of the parts and components and drop things into a new airframe.

At other times I may like the plane so much that even after a bad crash I may elect to repair it.

It doesn't take much to repair Balsa and ply, and stock is available constantly.

You can fabricate almost any cracked part, and in most cases you can use the broken pieces to put things back together like a big jigsaw puzzle ( picking up ALL of the pieces is WORTH IT! ).

There are plenty of guides and books available to help you out too.

Once you start making your own repairs, you'll wonder why you ever fretted about being able to obtain parts for a discontinued plane.

Also you'll have a lot of fun building your own "Franken-planes"!

All the time, and new models replace them.

Your best bet is to stick with the most popular stuff that sells well. In giant scale, Piper Cubs come to mind as do P51's. I doubt any of the major manufacturers are going to discontinue either of those planes anytime soon.

No even the "sells well" runs are terminated for newer models.

I have a nice Funtana S90 that went out of production in favor of the 100X, which also went out of production for the new Funtana 1.25.

My Funtana S90 still looks pristine in spite of a couple of crashes, due to my learning how to repair it...


Good selling models are no guarantee, neither are the name brands, who you buy it from, etc.

Your best bet is to learn how to fix your own planes, or deal with airframes as one big replacement "part".

Jose brings up a point Ihave preached to students over the years, build a kit or two and you will know how to repair an ARF. Ihave one old student that has crashed and broken his H-9 Pulse three times and it's still flying and you would really have to look close to see it was evenr broken.
My old Kaos was cut by Joe Bridi about 20 years ago, it's on the fourth cover job and Ihave broken the fuse in half twice, most people don't know it was ever crashed. Ibroke it about two months ago and everyone thought it was a trash can plane, it was back in the air in a week with very little signs of any repairs.
ARFs are fast to get in the air but you should learn to do your own repairs. You can always find parts like canopy's and cowls from other ARFs that you can make fit even if your plane is no longer made. An Extra is an Extra, all you really need to know is the size of the plane so you can match parts with from another manufacture.

Another option is to buy extra parts that you can't easily make yourself, such as cowlings, pant skirts, canopies, etc.  Most of the time if it is constructed of balsa, you can make a new wing or fusulage, but the fiberglass stuff can be a bit harder to do.

I whole heartedly agree with the two prior posts. Both bring up good and additional points.

I'll also add to that, once you start making repairs ( or build a kit ), you are far less intimidated by the prospect of hurting your plane.

I believe this makes you a better pilot, as you can relax and get into flying.

When a mishap does happen, you also tend to improve your plane while learning about the design.

This aids you when shopping for other planes, and also when building or repairing other planes, so you quickly progress.


I SHOULD have started with Gray Beard's advice and built a kit. It took me longer to get comfortable with repairs as a result.

Of couse looking back there are a few other things I should have done that were advised too...