foodstick

I always wonder what will happen when arf prices eventually climb up to the same level as building yourself ?

It will probably happen. There were some good deals over the years before the climbing prices started in.

My planes are a mix of arf, kit,and plan built planes ... there is a lot to say about each type..

In the beginning the arfs were nearly free when you factored in the time someone had spent on them, but as wages and shipping overseas bring the cost of wooden built arfs up I wonder if that segment of the hobby will slow down.

I am just addicted to the planes and will mess with them if I am too blind to fly.

I wonder if the higher cost will slow down new people from entering the hobby? I suppose the new foam planes will always be available at decent entry levels. But I can see the wood built up arfs possibly pricing themselves out of the market for many people... I doubt there will be a huge increase in kit building no matter what .. There will always be someone that wants to fix old cars, restore old boats, and build kit planes...

Time will tell for sure.

huck1199

The people who are attracted to flying by the low cost foamies in the LHS are rarely seen by the flying clubs - they crash and burn before learning how to fly. They never get to meet modelers in the local clubs and join the hobby. I don't see this situation changing.

k12rc

I'am in same boat you are love to build but the price of wood has gone out of site I have both arf and plan built and will keep building until blind or broke but there isn't any new blood entering the sport except foamy flyers no body wants to build or repair future looks bad

ARUP

If one truly loves (put subject of interest here) then one will do whatever it takes to obtain it.

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

Not really, I gave up trap, skeet and sporting clays shooting due to the costs of every part of the sport. I just couldn't afford to do it any longer and it went way past love, it was a big part of my life.
Duck hunting was the same. The cost of it has gone way beyond what most anyone on a fixed income can afford.
As a plans builder I have never cared what happened to the price of ARFs but before building from plans I was a kit builder but the price of kits priced me out of the market and forced me into plans building.
I still buy some of my bulk wood from National Balsa but because I belong to a wood working club I can now just buy my balsa in blocks and cut it into sheets and sticks myself, that saves a bunch of money.

ARUP

You have limited yourself to a fixed income requirement. Get another side job to defray the costs to pay for 'trap shooting' and/or give up other hobbies. Otherwise you don't really love trap shooting that much. I did what it takes to pay off mortgage and rental home note very early. I love airplanes and am still figuring a way to own one full scale. Problem is I can't make up my mind which to acquire! I'm leaning toward a home built Waiex. Time is passing me by and some of my goals might exceed realistic expectations but I can still dream!

LesUyeda

"I always wonder what will happen when arf prices eventually climb up to the same level as building yourself ? "

That has already happened. My son pointed me to a Top Flite P-40 ARF. I once built one of the original kits, and it cost me more in materials, than this ARF did, and I still had to spend the time of building, covering, and painting.

Les

foodstick

Les, I think maybe you misunderstood the post?

We agree the the kit build is actually more expensive to do yourself, I was just watching the ARF prices inflate to the cost of building ..and wondering as the wood built arfs become very expensive.. will people continue to buy them.. or will ARF sales slow, drop off, and possibly start disappearing, like the kit manufacturers did.

I would not be surprised in 5 years if the arf companies are almost exclusively foam built planes..

I just wish the arf manufacturers sold kits as well !

tailskid

My Feedback: (34)

To answer the original question....buy the kit.....what else can you do after the suns sets? ()

acerc

To answer the OP statement. They will still buy ARF's or quit the sport, IMHO. Foamies are here to stay, unless they price them out of quick and cheap. As for kit's, there are plenty out their. One just has took look. I think the real problem with kit's is they are no longer stocked in LHS. So someone, the got to have it now generation, has to actually take the time to look and search a little. I did this just yesterday and in a matter of a couple minute's found kit's of just about anything. Of course they may be the wrong size, color, manufacturer, era, any excuse not to buy.

RCPAUL

My Feedback: (1)

For me, it will not make a difference. I love to build and love to build from plans best of all. Sure wood and other materials are expensive but it is the reward of making somethin that actually functions and looks good too.

Paul

acerc

Now Paul, if your gonna make a statement like that you have got to have one or two in your gallery.

Tailskid, do you still have the GeeBee? Beautiful plane!

ARUP, that black and white Fokker DRI is sick.

tailskid

My Feedback: (34)

Yes I still have the Gee Bee.....it flys great, landings on the other hand have to be done correctly or it will bounce!

pmerritt

My Feedback: (118)

It doesn't really matter if prices meet!  Those that have the money will buy what they want.  Those that don't have the money will put everything on a credit card, not pay for it, file bankruptcy eventually making prices higher for those that have money.  It also causes prices to go up across the board for all these kits and ARFs for future hobby enthousiasts.  
 
This hobby is a luxury and not exactly for those on a tight budget!  In fact if a family is week to week with budgeting, or even close to living paycheck to paycheck, this isn't an "affordble" expense whatsoever. 

Whether the cost is a kit, arf, RTF, those that deem the costs necessary will spend whatever it takes to satiate the hobby's addiction.   I can't see starting from scratch getting into a complete self sufficient flying mode for less than $150.00 minimum.  If one's income just meets the weekly outgo of cash, that $150.00 will buy a lot of diapers, groceries, or pay some utilities. Granted there are those that will neglect the above responsibilities regardless.  Price won't affect that neglect one way or the other.  Whether it changes the minds of folks that can afford either, that comes down to those that care to spend countless  hours building and not flying vs. those that love to fly more than build. 

What isn't going through the roof these days?  I drive 10 miles one way to get my airplanes from the warehouse and 10 back to the field.  It costs me a gallon of gas just to get to the field.  Add the cost of fuel, what I tear up and the trip back, I'm glad my days of having to buy diapers are long over with.  If you want to spend a lot of flying, I'd suggest you fall on that WIlkenson Sword and quit having kids.  

carrellh

People who want to build will continue to do so; kit, plans, scratch
People who do not want to build will continue to buy RTF, ARF, or models built by individuals in the line above
Price may cause all or some of to buy less but I do not think it will change the build vs buy demographic

AmishWarlord

My Feedback: (5)

All of you old farts are living in the past.

"Shows great grandchild an ancient "DVD" of building a RC Cub back in 2010."

"LOL Great grandpaw, you guys sure looked scanny back then, using your hands to build stuff like a baby".

The future will be to print out a perfect Top Gun scale class airplanes complete with running radial piston or jet engine from your 3D printer for $100 bucks worth of plastic and metal dust.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFFFiB_if18

acerc

Just another throw away foamie. But the technologie is cool.

Airplanes400

My Feedback: (349)

If that ever happens you better bend over and kiss your ***** goodbye. Because cataclysmic events will happen all over the world; riots will break out in every street, the DOW JONES stock exchange will tumble, gold will fall to $1 a pound, apes will rule the world, banks will fold, ailens and the dead will rise up from the ground and the sea, Obama will be re-elected, disease and famine will break out in every country, the world will be left with only one TV channel that will constantly play season 2 re-runs of the Andy Griffith Show, glaciers will melt, your girlfriend will leave you for another woman, the earth will began to shake, rattle and roll for centuries, beer and alcohol will become extinct, and everyone that is left alive will speak with a Chinese-British accent.

foodstick

Airplane 400,

Man that is quite an impressive list of catastrophes, I think the only one you forgot was the cast of the JERSEY Shore would take over control of the AMA !!

Airplanes400

My Feedback: (349)

Oh no! Say it isn't so! If that happened, we would all be transported through a time-portal, and forever stuck in the other thread about the AMA discussion board being removed! That would be total hell. That would be worse than dark matter interacting with negative matter, thus causing the universe and all the galaxies to explode!

Will the nightmares ever end!

jp1961

You're correct, the cost of building a kit vs buying an ARF is very close. However when you build a kit you're assured the glue joints are sound vs somebody building an ARF on a production line assembly where I'm sure the quantity factor overshadows the quality factor. I've seen quite a few ARF's disintegrate in midair. The glue used in ARF construction is questionable (looks like either hot glue or white glue, they don't look like they use CA, probably too expensive.)
The covering used on some ARF's is very cheap, I doubt its Monocoat or Ultracoat.
Jeff

LesUyeda

"looks like either hot glue or white glue,"

At least on the one I just got, it was hot glue, which makes sense. Instant bond, no waiting for glue to set.

"I was just watching the ARF prices inflate to the cost of building ..and wondering as the wood built arfs become very expensive.. will people continue to buy them"

Yes. There are those that cannot/will not build, but insist on flying anyway, like my #2 son:-))))))))))))

Les

SkyPilot101

I always wonder what will happen when arf prices eventually climb up to the same level as building yourself ?

Well, I'd like to think that when this happens, some bright, intelligent, young man of natural origin will realize that the price advantage the aisan manufactures had because of slave wages will have evaporated, and that it is actually profitable to manufacture ARF's in the good old USA. His ARF line will be superior because of his experience as a accomplished modeler himself. In short time his line of ARF's will burn down the competition from aisa, and his prices will actually fall due to increased demand and good business tactics.

Who Is Going to Step Up to the Plate?

acerc

Not gonna happen skypilot101. Too many government regulation's, too much insurance requirement's, and too high labor cost.
Those reason's are why we don't produce much of anything.
Those market's outside of the US does not have the above issue's.
The only thing that will come close to lowering ARF prices is for a shortage of customer's to the Asian market.
Supply and demand.

FSFLYER

My Feedback: (12)

I really get a kick out of these posts in which people refer to themselves as being on "Fixed Incomes". The reality of it is that for the most part we are all on "Fixed Uncomes". Some more, some less, some in school, some retired. Unless you come into an inheritance or win the lottery, your basic income is somewhat fixed. Maybe the only other option would be to get a part time job to supplement the hobby addiction.