I am relatively new to this hobby and am not the greatest ARF builder. I like the assortment of electric PNP's available, but I wish there were more nitro PNP planes available. Does anyone else feel the same way? I began flying many of the Parkzone electric planes, but I have been hooked on nitro ever since I purchased a Tower 40 RTF.

Brian

It they introduce new people into the hobby, I'm all for it! Personally, I won't do ARFs let alone whatever a PNP is. I assume it's a Bind and Fly?

It's "Plug N Play", bind and fly without the receiver. You install your receiver in the plane. Allows those of us using non-Spektrum radios to use airplanes packaged for Spektrum. They usually cost less because they don't come with receiver or flight batteries. Bind N Fly comes ready to fly except for charging the batteries and binding the radio.

Most of the ARF's are pretty intuitive and some of them are just plain simple. Some, though can require some previous assembly experience. But, most of the glow ARF trainers are pretty easy to put together and are great to fly.

I recently bought a Hanger 9 Alpha trainer to use as a "club trainer" but fly often fly it as a sort of "step back and relax" sort of plane. But, I find that there are some basics of RC flight that the more advanced planes sort of take for granted that the trainers bring us back to. So, I use it both as a reminder of the basics of RC flight as well as a club trainer.

With that said, this plane was easy to assemble and flys just fine. "It's so easy even a cave man can do it"....

Many folks, like Gary, will not go near an ARF, and I admire that. I just don't have the time to dedicate to building a kit as much as I would love to. Perhaps after I retire (again.. ),

CGr

bjfrankl, are you a member of a club? If so, I'm sure you could find a fellow club member that would assemble an ARF for you for a case of beer or something.

In my opinion you should try an ARF plane and take the time to assemble it, it may be more work but the instructions are pretty straight forward. It will give you a much better understanding of how the components work. Then if and when you ever have a problem with your plane you'll have a better understanding of how to correct it. I've been into rc planes almost 4 months now and have a nextar trainer, .46 beaver on skis, h9 .46 mustang pts, and i'm about 30 hours into a .75 spitfire kit. It's not difficult, you just have to follow instructions, use common sence, and take your time. the way I look at it is "there's people dumber than me that do it" maybe even for a living!

I am a member of a club. I started flying a Hobby Zone Super Cub and a Parkzone t-28 Trojan before moving to nitro with a Tower 40 RTF. I have almost finished a Avistar ARF which, I admit, was a good experience. After assembling the Avistar ARF, I feel that I do have a better understanding of how an rc airplane is built. I do not have a lot of space to build, otherwise I would be more interested in putting together ARF's.

You could always get RTF's and sell the radios.

Good point, faulknej. I thought about setting up my Spektrum DX6i to my RTF airplanes. I purchased the DX6i from a friend for $50 because he no longer needed it. I am a bit suspicious of the RTF radios since last fall when I lost a Tower 40 RTF. The plane was flying well until it suddenly started looping on its own. I forced the plane down to the ground by applying down elevator (luckily with no damage). I checked the controls and everything seemed to be working okay. After charging the batteries, I took it out for another flight. The plane flew just fine on the first couple of flights, but on the third flight the plane wouldn't recover from a loop and crashed straight into the ground. I had no controls on the backend of the loop.

That sounds like a classic case of a battery with a bad cell,,,and yes it happened to me too....takes a charge fine,, looses power too quickly and nic-cds go nutsy when low on power....but really ARF's arent that much to do, you need a razor blade, epoxy, some gel ca, and a screwdriver.....Rog