I have narrowed it down to these 4 kits: Dirty birdy .60, Great Escape, Ufo and XLT.

I want to do a traditional tri gear retract with either a side or rear exhaust. Any recommendations on these 4?

Also, these have been out of stock for some time and wondering if they will ever be available?

If you don't have the kits, your choices are narrowed down substantially. Last I heard they were not shipping much. None of the ones you mention except possibly for the DB60 occasionally.

David

Hello there
If your going to consider kits that you can go out and buy right now and don't mind a bit of postage you could try the Kosmo 3 and 4.
Schweighofer do the Kosmo 3 kit for about 99 euro, and even with the postage it would be a good deal. (thinking of getting one myself for a rainy day)

Sussex Model Centre also sell the Kosmo 3 and 4.

The Kosmo 3 is a classic wood construction Pattern Plane and should tick all the boxes.

There are also a fair few "glass and foam kits" available stateside.

Having messed with what the guys in the States describe as "vapourware", past experience tells me to only persue items that are ready to ship,

From what I've seen, the postage from Europe to the States is reasonable.

Regards
Rodders

Eureka Aircraft sells short kits (just laser-cut wood parts) for the Dirty Birdy in either an all balsa or balsa/foam (wings and stab) configuration. They also sell foam wing and stab cores for the UFO and Escape/Great Escape. You'll need plans, but the fuselage parts are pretty easy to cut. The fiberglass canopy for the Escape/Great Escape may be available from Don Carlson at rcaiir.com.
The Blue Jay versions of the Bridi kits are very nice, I have a UFO, but the owner hasn't been making many kits. It may be worth it to send an email to him, the more kit demand the more likely he may be to produce some more.
Good Luck.

Tampa,

I'm thinking along the same lines as Will here. Of the four models you mention, I'd be inclined to scratch built either the GE or the XLT (GE would be my choice) with a set of foam cores and a pipe deck. These two models have fuses which I think are easier to cut and build than the UFO or DB. Of course, the former two are better suited to a RE engine IMO while the latter two were originally designed for SE engines.

David

Just to add to David's comments, also consider what you have for power. The Escape and Great Escape are definitely larger than the DB or the UFO, and the UFO, while quite sleek has a relatively 'draggy' airfoil. My first DB, built 40 years ago, had a muffled OS .60 FSR for power. 2 years later, my 3rd one had a piped OS .61VF. I competed against quite a few UFOs powered with screaming Rossis which flew very well. A strong RE .61 in the Escape or Great Escape would be preferable.
I don't know if plans for the Escape or Great Escape were ever published, but I'm sure somebody would scan or copy a set of kit plans for you. Possibly you could buy just the plans from BlueJay.

Or..., I could just post them here...

I used to also have a copy of the XLT plans but I seem to have misplaced them. In any case, I believe the Escape and GE are better designs and refinements of Joe's earlier XLT. The GE is actually a refinement of the Escape and those design changes were not made by Joe himself.

David

Bill Cunningham made the changes to the Escape. He further modified the Great Escape into the 2-stroke (.61 size) Malibu (which strongly resembles the Dash-5) which then evolved into the Malibu 120.
Thanks for sharing, David!

Thanks for all the info guys.....very helpful. Right now scratch building something off plans is not what I am looking for, would rather have a kit. Its not sounding good as far as getting something from Bluejay.

I wonder if there is no profit in building Bridi's kits? Or demand is too low?

Just saying from personal kitting experience. Producing and offering kits to the public is a labor of love unless done in a serial systematic fashion on large scale. Companies such as Bluejay (and myself) do this out of joy for the hobby, not profit.

David

FYI, Battlefield Rc in Rossville Ga has the Bluebird Dirty Birdie and XLT. No idea of price etc search internet for address and tele no.

...and we thank you for your efforts, David!
Sadly, with the advent of inexpensive ARFs, building is becoming a lost art. There are very few kit manufacturers anywhere on the planet and especially all balsa kits. Quality balsa (contest grade) has become more difficult and expensive to obtain and kit cutting is either very labor intensive (if done by hand) or requires some expensive hardware (laser cutter). Well engineered laser cut kits are just about self aligning and very easy to build. I have found a few wood pattern kits available in Europe and Japan. The quality is outstanding, but the price is comparable to currently available ARFs (typically built in China). These kits are produced 'on demand'; you pay, then the kit is manufactured; so usually 6-10 weeks wait. The classic Japanese kit manufacturers (MK, Yoshioka, Marutaka) have all ceased kit production or have gone out of business.
The price of the Bluejay kits is very reasonable and I suspect not exceptionally profitable. As a point of comparison, the Eureka Blue Angel kit (complete less plans) is $240 which I think is still quite reasonable.
Of course there's always eBay

Xlt

Blue Jay UFO is back in stock. http://www.bridiairplanes.com/hangar/ufo.html

oysifly how are you coming on your XLT?

worked on belly pan tonight and then mostly final sanding and fitting control surfaces