acdii

This is disturbing. I am searching for reviews on the Slick Aerobat 20CC ARF as an entry point into 3D planes and come across several Phoenix planes that disassemble themselves in flight. It appears one of them happens to be one of the 580's I am considering. Is the consensus on these to avoid them? If I have to go to the trouble to strip the covers and reglue, I might as well just find plans and build my own.

David Jackson

My Feedback: (15)

Thanks for the updated information, I was just considering the Phoenix Slick to replace my Extreme Flight model. Guess I will spend the extra cash to get another Extreme Flight Slick as I know it can handle the stresses of 3d flight.

acdii

I just looked at the Extreme, but looks like they are electric only, too bad, pricing was pretty good.

Rocketman612

My Feedback: (85)

What was the specific cause of the wing failure?? Lack of glue or reinforcement? Did you get another one and have you flown it?

Pete

KJGCT1

Sorry for your loss. But please understand that the failure of one airframe does not mean the planes are not airworthy. I have a Phoenix Extra 300, and an Edge 540, which I fly the hell out of doing violent aerobatic maneuvers. My planes have never failed me. A number of my fellow club members have Phoenix planes and they are all fine! One should not condemn a manufacturer due to the loss of one plane. The wing could have had a crack in it due to hanger rash for all you know.
I contacted Phoenix Models about a missing part, I received a message that they were sending me the part within 24 hours. I was speaking to a rep from a very large manufacturer at Top Gun one year and he said folks call all the time saying there was something wrong with a plane, that it broke in mid air. He said we know our airframes, they are will never "break up" in mid air.
I am sure your plane had a reason why it broke in flight, and a hard landing or mishandling are probably the cause!

rltrahan

My Feedback: (128)

Going on 28 years now in the hobby I still have never seen a planes wing fail so easily on its second flight with no kind of aerobatics just plane old gentle scale flying. This was and still is the only post Ive ever written against any rc company to date. It was no hangar rash because it was a brand new plane. After I found 2 other hobbyist with the same failures and waited to get a response from phoenix models with no reply I decide to write this post. There are 4 other members on RC groups with the same failure in the same part of the wing on the same model of plane. There's even a video one of them posted that can easily be found on youtube. If you go over to the same blog on RCgroups you will see a couple of testimonies of members with other structural failures on other models made by Phoenix. You will also see a lot of member who've identified the poor construction of their models in which they had to modify them to be flight worthy. Many cases it was lack of adhesive or just straight up poor design which I've pointed out on this particular model in other post. I will tell you first thing is the wing tube is to short and ends right at the narrows part of the wing. As far as Phoenix Models customer service they never responded to my 9 emails over a 3 week period which I will say this blog is over a year and half old so maybe they stepped it up. Anyway I received a replacement from Tower Hobbies customer service after they had me send the plane to them to exam it. If I still sound upset I am because unfortunately I still lost a grand in high end servos, electronics, batteries and a brand new DLE 61 because of a poorly made plane that actually already had known issues before I bought mine and I regret I didn’t do the research before hand. In the end I traded the arf for another plane and bought a seagull models Lysander which in comparison is a drastic improvement in the build quality. Its a blessing you've had such success with your phoenix planes and their could be many reasons and variables contributing to why, I could only speculate at this point. Honestly I will never own one again after mine and others experiences with planes from this company, cant afford to throw money away like that.

Regards and God Bless

sbb

I have a lot of Phoenix model aircraft, but I happen to have twisted wings and poor adhesion.

Rocketman612

My Feedback: (85)

Thanks for the update. I have been collecting items to get mine in the air. Been thinking about how to reinforce the wing around the end of the wing tube. I waited for months to get enough silver Ultracoat as I want to remove the covering and check for proper gluing. My idea is to use carbon-fiber shafts to span this area and share the load. Will Hysol them in place. Hope to get to this this summer.

Pete

TimD.

My Feedback: (207)

Sadly , This is the new way of business in our society. Agree on 20yrs ago customer service were way better in the hobby. Now its disposable product.

The Arf's today are a true 50% ratio. If it makes it past 5 flights it will most likely last a while. I have bought 2,3,4 of the same arfs and some blow apart without reason within a couple of flights and others last a season or two. Guess that is the New business model " Repetitive buying".

Personally I have several aircraft in the 10000's of dollars that I have purchased that will NEVER see air. I just do not trust the quality of build or engineering. SAD

acdii

If you want it to last, build it yourself. ARF are OK to get in the air quickly, but nothing beats a properly glued and built plane. Three of my first planes were ARF, only one still sort of flies, it's foam. The other two came apart in flight. My first built plane, a SIG LT-40, built it in 2011, still flies today, and flies quite well too. I have had two SIG Somethin Xtra ARF, first one flew a few years before an aileron decided it had enough and spiraled in, the second one flies like crap. Probably going to build one instead. Great flying plane, when they fly right. The sad part is, there are a lot of really nice looking, should fly great ARF, but build quality is always suspect, and you cannot get kit's for these planes, its ARF or scratch.