a guy at my field has a home-scavenged plane. It's fuselage is a drainpipe. that's right, a drainpipe. His wing is that of a right flyer, with all the dihedral taken out of it, and sheeted with contest balsa so it also mows lawns nicely without punching holes in the covering. the tail is also a right flyer tail. the tailboom is aluminum bar. it has a tendency to rock from side to side, so the stab is almost never strait with the wing. He is not a very good pilot, and his landings are amusing. but, this plane could make it through WWIII no problem. Thanks to his incredible landing skills, sometimes he smacks the side of the hill (our field is on top of a hill) and he just picks it up, refuels, and starts his engine again, and flies. this guy has hit other hills around us while he stares out at the sky. amazing.....

Two quick comments...

Any high drag high wing loaded plane will have a steeper glide slope with power off, i.e. deadstick. Such planes (like the Duraplane) will still deadstick just fine, just keep in mind your glide will be steeper than with lighter loaded cleaner designs. If anything, they make it to the ground quicker . I think that is what others have tried to express. With power off it feels like you are flying a brick.

As for ARFs, I got nothing against them. For anyone that wants to get in the air quick or has no interest in building, they are great. I've had a few in my day. However, there is still an advantage to building besides pure enjoyment as was indicated in this thread. I can easily build lighter and/or stronger than any ARF I've seen, and that equates to better flight performance. Not saying ARF performance is bad, it is not per se. But a well built kit plane will easily out perform any ARF I've seen. OK, I can think of one ARF that would be hard to out build, but not impossible, but I don't suggest it as a second plane.

Cheers

there are very high quality arf's like all of z-line's and creek hobbies. there are a few other patten companeys that make very high quality arf's

great planes makes great arfs. you pay more, but they are fairly light and strong. my easy sport weighs about 5 lbs with fuel. i just flew it today for the first time in a year, and if flies like a trainer, except when you crank in the throws. Raptor, Here's an idea. On the exhaust stack side, home-print a sticker that says smoke this. I saw it on one of those little flying lawnmowers, and i wanted one myself. For a cap, i gan get it to do 80 mph. that is pretty fast for a plane with such high drag. when you are doing aerobatics, frontal area doesn't matter too much, especialy when you are tumbling. this four stroke has so mucch muscle, between a 14x6 and a 14x8, i loose 100 rpm. that's it. i could seriously race this thing. Raptor, there is a company called tnt landing gear i found out about. They will custom make landing gears for about 30 bucks out of aircraft grade aluminum (6061 aluminum) that don't weight much. i am cutting out about 2 ounces by replacing my fiberglass gear. www.tntlandinggear.com . Also, once you find the ideal prop for that plane, there is a company called tru-turn owned by romco that will custom make a spinner to precicely fit that prop. They do a lot cleaner job than most people can do, and they will also lighten your spinner backplate for $7.50, it cuts out like an ounce. you should consider those futaba coreless servos. they are great. I replaced my aileron servos with those, and MAN! what a difference.

ya space i'm getting the 9001's witch are coreless and the spinner i'm geting is FAI spinner so is can fit a 14 pitch prop.

get the 9101s. they are more expensive, but they are well worth the extra money. my rudder is a 9001, my ailerons are 9101s. there is really a diference in reaction time. even if you just move the sticks on the ground, you can see how much faster they are. my ailerons used to me mushy, and responded kinda slow. i replaced the ailerons from 1 inch stock to 1.5 inch stock and tapered it. i put 9101s and CRAP! WHAT A DIFFERENCE! i can do about 2 rolls per second, and the thing responds instantly. The ailerons aren't even mushy at low speeds. they aren't perfectly crisp, but i can roll the thing a 1 roll per second at just a couple clicks above stall speed