cloudancer03

My Feedback: (22)

I am re doing a sig liberty sport bi plane that a club member had from 1973.he said I will never get to it so you take and finish it. I started working on it last week and love it.my last build was about 4 years ago.i built a 1/4 scale sig spacewalker and flewit a few seasons.i admit I got lazy and started with arfs and transtioned to electrics.i got excited about building again and plan to do a warbird over the winter .I have built probably 30 or 40 kits.i love building.forget I cant do house construction but give a set of plans or a good kit and I can do wonders.it is sad when they crash but any plane can do that .if you cant handle the emotions then its the wrong hobby.i have been in rc 35 plus years and it never ceases to amaze me. I still get as excited as ever when I maiden a new plane.there are still some kits out there sadly because they arent produced you pay thru the nose.i just cant get cozy with foam.oh I get it and never bad mouth like some do I just have a greater appreciation for kits built.i do electric and have a couple 30cc planes.for me its about size scale and the type of flying I want.i have gotten bored with 3d and yet I am not a circle flyer either.

Bolshoi

My Feedback: (2)

Great topic, I admire guys that can build from kits, my grandfather built from kits and scratch built from plans. I didn't inherit the talent
unfortunately. I can "Assemble" an ARF therefor I can fly, so ARFs are the reason guys like myself can fly at all; it's not only a matter of instant gratification etc. , for me it's a lack of talent for building, like anything else in life some have the gift for a particular undertaking the rest of us have to pay to have it done for us. - Cheers

tailskid

My Feedback: (34)

We builders all had to learn sometime......

NoOneFlysAtMyClub

My Feedback: (32)

I think it is more that we wanted to learn so we could fly. Building is not a college level course. We are just cutting and gluing wood together.
Most people are intimidated by subjects they are not familiar with. Those that dig in and find out are rewarded.

FlyingPilgrim

My Feedback: (26)

My friend told me the secret to happiness is:
-Have someone to love
-Have something to do
-Have something to look forward to

This hobby always gives me something to do and look forward to. I love both ARFs and kits. Nothing gives pride like taking a new kit built plane to the field and getting it up and down in one piece.

raptureboy

He who dies with the most toys still dies and leaves them all to someone else who never worked for them. You will never see a hearse pulling a Uhaul. they all fly pretty much the same and go round and round in a circle and you can only fly one at a time, eventually they all end up in a landfill or burn pile. If you hoard all the kits you bought and never get rid of some then how will all the potential builders ever get a chance to try building? I refuse to pay 6 times the original price of a kit because someone thinks it's rare, or hard to find. Once you build it, and fly it no one wants to pay you anything for it anyway, so why not let some of them go now?

still bill

My Feedback: (1)

I say again, sell those kits you are not working on or don't plan on building in the near future to some of us builders. I think I enjoy the building part more than the flying.

CafeenMan

Ha!! Shows what you know. I have Plan A and Plan B.

Plan A) Remain immortal.

Should my immortal status update to mortal then...

Plan B) Take it all with me.

cloudancer03

My Feedback: (22)

Tailskid you are so right.my first plane was a debolt champ.just married I had to build it on a kitchen table.i followed the instructions and was so proud until realized I had two left wings.then one time I built a low wing.i sanded the saddle a longgggg time.nobody ever told me about postive incidence but I sure found out sadly the hard way.i have built wings and tried going thru the door without turning the wing vertical.ugh.i was up many hours the nite before so I could fly.god I have done some stupid things learning to build but back then you built or you didnt fly.

Jim Branaum

My Feedback: (3)

The first RC bird I built was a Trainer 60. It had 2 left wings at one point. I got into more stuff with that bird... turned right into a tree one day because I thought I was going to be too close during a right hand approach. It finally died when I entered one of those slam all the sticks around maneuvers and an aileron departed the airplane. By the time I figured out I was in trouble, it was way too late because I was still at full throttle. OOPS!

049flyer

My Feedback: (18)

Kits are nice but aren't really needed. There are thousands of plans out there, really isn't too much additional effort involved to build from plans.

You could also build from a short kit. There are hundreds of short kits available from a variety of laser cutters. All you need is the short kit, some sheet balsa, magazine plans and you are good to go! I guarantee that the short kit will be much higher quality than the old die crunch in the original kit box.

Start with http://www.lazer-works.com/main.html

No excuses now! Build away!

JimInCA

My stash of kits now numbers 17. I refer to them as my "Retirement Account".
Jim...

flyoz

My Feedback: (7)

This thread is a perfect representation of the human race hahaha. The ideal/ optimum would be buy short kits and collect balsa and hardware which is somewhat generic to all. but then the short kits are ofter mas expensive as a full kit which is generally more expensive than ARFs With decrease in builders its already getting difficult to source some things, but then smore options seem to also pop up.
Imagine if the human race just focussed its energy on one subject, say Space, we would be living in a Startrek era already

CrashBang

My Feedback: (1)

Come on Dudes, get off some of these unbuilt kits (at a sane price) I'm tired of cutting ribs ! I certainly understand collecting these kits because they are getting very hard to find at a reasonable price. MidWest Extra 300 XL for $400 Then buy a fiberglass cowl and wheel pants. Makes for an expensive build.

acejinx

I can't agree with they all fly the same! The person that says that needs more planes!

straitnickel

yes indeed you have got to have something to do. I'm stuck in the house so believe me you will go nuts with nothing to do. My models are everything to do here except for the mailman and trash day and then cutting the grass.

straitnickel

good for you then Jim. No need to feel bad about the number of what ever we have. Models can also be say collections

sensei

All planes defiantly do not fly the same, in fact the same plane built by two different builders can and do in many cases fly very different from one another.

Bob

sglmnd

I've only been in the hobby (Obsession?) for three years....started with a simple arf trainer...moved up quickly and now own over 20 various aircraft......but something strange has happened....I bought a Tiger Moth kit....having a ball building while flying my arf's....then, bought plans off the internet for a Grumman Ag Cat, Piper Pawnee, and an old kit of another WW-2 biplane trainer.....am I going backwards?

049flyer

My Feedback: (18)

You are going the way that is right for you. I happen to think you are going forward through the hobby. It's a hobby not a measure of your virility.

However, there are those that think that if you are not going bigger and faster then you are going backwards.

flyoz

My Feedback: (7)

Well stated. Its a Hobby for your personal dreams and enjoyment Only. Whatever way you go at whatever level and pace and result is absolutely correct

PS Im devolving the same, ARFs give a general how they work/look grounding, Kits afford a helping hand tutoring, Plans a guide to let you utilise all those skills to go it almost alone and scratch build is total freelance. 9except for the fact that some planes you build may have real life counterparts to be guided by