They make a lot of accesories. It's all on their website. But even the number of RC accessories is down from what it was a number of years ago. But then again everyone else that isn't owned by Hobbico is as well.

I made an order from them about a year ago directly. It didn't go real well. I ordered and tried to get a tracking number. At that time they told me they weren't set up to provide a tracking number...come on it's 2009 - you need to catch up or someone else will. I got about 1/2 my order and when I called they said the other 1/2 was out of stock. I asked when were they going to tell me. They said I would figure it out when I got half and they would ship the other half in a few months.....

I don't think it was always like that at SIG.

With kit building on the decline , and the economy wavering, EVERYONE is running a tighter ship...and its definitely not going to be easy for ANY hobby business. We just need to support SIG when they can't get the wood to put their kits together. It sure beats the alternatives. They seem to be in it for the long haul, if being patient helps them get there, thats what we need to show..

I sure feel for anyone that wants a product right away, and is having trouble getting it... But lets not let a good friend to the hobby think we have given up on them !

I spoke to Mike from Sig today about kit stock. Many kits are in stock but some are not (like the King Kobra, 4 Star 60, 1/4 scale cub). Basically, much of the world's balsa is going towards wind mill blades and there's a shortage of high quality wood. They recently received a wood shipment and at least 50% of it is baseball bat quality and no good for model airplanes. He assured me only quality woods would be used in the kits. They should have kits in stock in 3 weeks. They have found a new supplier of better quality woods for the future so I'm sure it will be business as usual before too long.

I feel for Sig. It's a great company that is the last large independent producer of model airplane kits. It must be tough not being able to get the raw materials to make the products you sell. Their ARF supplier is jerking them around on exchange rates (they want more money despite a deal).

Model airplanes are a relatively low volume business that I doubt is very profitable. I love building kits and really hope that there are a few good ones left in 10 years. Think for a second about the ones we've lost: Goldberg Bucker, Extra, Sukhoi and probably the Ultimate soon. GP Ultrasport 60, Skybolt, Aeromaster bipe, Midwest big Cap and Extra, Lanier Stinger, all the ACE kits, Bob Godfrey kits, Top Flite Bonanza, etc. etc. The list is long and by no means complete. We've lost REAL original Monokote and Enya engines to boot.

Sig is pretty much the only full line producer of kits anymore. We must do whatever it takes to ensure they survive and make money.

Mike

Sig is clearly not the only one facing the balsa shortage. I'll give up the hobby of building before I pay for a pre-built or composite model.

http://www.lonestar-balsa.com/

How does one do that if one can't purchase a company's products? Send them a hug? To a business, moral support is worth exactly what it costs you.

I've been stock-piling kits just incase. There are a couple I want to order from Sig.


FYI, Enya is alive and well at www.enya-engine.com. I've ordered engines and parts from them. They've even introduced a couple of new engines.


Larsen

I ordered some stuff from sig and got it within a week.I am just finishing my first true scale project ..a sig1/4 scale spacewalker2.I love it and bought koverall to cover it as I am sick of monokote and shinny plastic coatings..the spacewalker makes a great first scale and in fact I liked it so much I asm considering a scond scale project and this time a gas warbird.I am one of those oddballs that enjoys building for the sheer pleasure I get from the end result.oh yeah I have a couple arf;s and always will just so I can fly whever but I will always have a kit in progress.beats hanging ina bar or being a couch potato lol.

it would be sad to see a legendary company like sig exit the business.I know koysho was gobled up by horizon .there are alot of small hobby businesses that have gone by the wayside given the economic climate.

If I had to stop flying altogether and someday in the future it cuold (diabetic)I will still build as its a lifetime hobby for me personally.

I can't predict the future, but sig is strong in belief, they never wanted to make money a first priority. Sure, all companies look at the bottom line, but sig does what people want and not what the bottom line needs. Because they realized a long time ago, if you do what you are passonate about, the money will follow. I would find it hard to believe that sig would exit the industry, but then again, I don't have a crystal ball so I can't say that for sure. So in the mean time, when I go to the LHS, I buy SIG hardware, sig kits and try to support them, I tell the hobby shop owner to order me something SIG just send a message. Every little bit helps, because if all the kit manufactures are gone, the ARF market will take the stage and charge what they want due to the fact that there will be no alternative except plans, that is if you can get a set of them, just look at goldberg, bought to dismantle the competition. I own a pristine bucker jungman NIB, so I know what we have lost over the years, along with the A&A kits, birdi speedster,MEN kits all sitting on my shelf. They are a reminder of a happier and more enjoyable time for not only me, but you too.

Mike , all I mean't by supporting SIG is not creating panic without reason. I don't have any inside info.. I just hope we don't cause some sort of self full filling prophecy by convincing everyone that Sig isn't even trying ...

That being said I hope it all works out, my family is from that general area, and the first RC airplane I ever encountered was at one of their flyins...

I ordered another 4 Star 60 (I just finished one on floats) to add to my collection. I called 10 different places in the country and no one has one in stock so I just backordered it on the Sig website. I can wiat a few weeks for it, no biggie. It also appears their Aerokote line is being discontinued. I never used the stuff.

I too have a pristine goldberg Bucker Jungmann and just ordered an Ultimate kit to have for the future. These classics cannot be replaced by some cheap ARF!

Mike

Ok guys, I went to "The Horse's Mouth Today". I spent some time on the phone with David Reddin from Sig today to find out what their status is. What he told me is pretty much what you read here. Balsa wood is in EXTREMELY short supply worldwide right now, so they are working against that. They got in a container of balsa last month and in David's words "it was the worst balsa wood I have ever seen", so most of it was completely unusable.  They are expecting another container of wood next month and if the samples sent were any indications they are in business as David said the wood is very high quality. Right now there is absolutely no 48" lengths of balsa at all. So any kits that need those lengths of wood will have to wait for the next container of wood. Other kits that they can cut with what they have are trickling out the doors, so keep an eye out as some of their kits are becoming available now. The other issue they have is ARF's. Once again, they are waiting for shipment from overseas to restore their stocks, but it is on the way according to David.

I think that's about it. David is a great guy who loves this hobby, so he is definitely a joy to talk to. We spent some time just chatting about the Sig kits and the state of the hobby today. If any of you ever get the chance to meet David in Toledo or get to talk to him on the phone please do so, he's a great guy.

Ken

Now KEN,
If we can olny get you to make topflite revert back to thier old monocote formula, the world would be a better place for all, and oh, get goldberg/GP to start a re-release of some goldberg classics from the vault too!

It hasn't just been a problem for SIG, when Lone Star Balsa got there doors opened after there big fire it took them a long time to be able to get enough balsa wood in stock. It was the same thing for all the balsa supply places. The world demand for balsa right now is very high and what the supply houses are getting is not up to the quality it once was. Don't be in shock when you order wood and it is a mixture of both hard and soft. I have been using up my own supply of contest grade wood on projects I would have never dreamed of using it on just a couple of years ago. Model airplanes are not on the top of the list for the big suppliers. Think of how many planes could be built with the wood from just one wind mill blade when you drive by a wind park. THINK GREEN!!!!!!!!!

does anyone know how much wood goes in a blade? surely the whole thing isn't glassed over balsa sheeting? Where is the wood in the blade?

Here's where all the good balsa wood is going.... Model planes aren't a pin***** on the radar in the world economy compared to this business! Papua New Guinea might be the next Equador for high quality wood. Do some research, there are several suppliers of wood from this source and it is supposedly all light, clean crisp 6-7lb wood!

Mike

<font size="1" face="MyriadPro-Regular"><font size="1" face="MyriadPro-Regular"><p align="left">Composites dominate the wind turbine blade market because of their superior fatigue characteristics and stiffnessto-</p><p align="left">weight ratio, ability to fabricate complex geometries and potential for aeroelastic tailoring. The outermost section</p><p align="left">of the blade is typically a gelcoat layer, which provides a smooth surface to enhance aerodynamic properties. Next</p><p align="left">typically comes a layer consisting of Nexus, a soft material that provides a relatively smooth but absorbent surface on</p><p align="left">which to mount the gelcoat. The next layer is a double-bias stack of composite plies made by twisting unidirectional</p><p align="left">fibers around a core at 45 degrees in both directions to make a torsion tube. At the blade trailing edge, the doublebias</p><p align="left">laminate splits into two layers to accommodate a core material such as balsa, foam or honeycomb. The corematerial</p>

laminate augments the buckling strength of the trailing edge of the blade.</p></font></font>

Planebuilder,
Top Flite was forced to change Monokote formula due to EPA regulations worried that you might try to eat the covering which could lead to lead posioning! So now you have to deal with a new greener product. Just like we can't get balsa very easily.
BTW Goldberg is not dead by anymeans. Thats all I can say!
Jason

Okay, that's it! I choose to blame Obama and his "green" projects for the balsa shortage. Drill more oil, dig more coal, harvest more natual gas. Give me my planes!

Now were talkin! green?!, pfft! please,...... I fart more emissions than my planes put out in one season. Especially with all that lubricant passing through my system. I'm so sick of all this green garbage going on, I'm sure it's good for the consumer, energy savings is a good thing, but I never plan on driving a hybrid, nor do I care if I still use dope paints or even burning nitro and spitting castor oil all over the place, it just makes me happy doing it the old fashoned way. I will still buy good old SIG products till the cows come home or they ban glue and dope paints to build with.

I wish someone with more money than me would take some old Monokote rolls, take them to a chemist and say "make" and start selling some delicious smelling, serious shrinking, good sticking, shiny, smooth, fun to cover with stuff we all remember.

If you saw my Ultracote jobs, you'd be jealous; however, they're nothing compared to what I used to be able to do with original Monokote!

I'd buy it, with lead or not. The "green" stuff they sell isn't worth the paper roll it comes on.

Mike

I know this is a SIG fourm, but you have a point, the last two rolls of cub yellow I bought are more like lemon yellow and sunshine out my butt yellow?! and the metallic blue looked like it had the measles, it's so bad that the backing mylar has air bubbles and the monocote is perminetly bubbled from being manufactured that way. It's absoloute garbage, I will never do another plastic covering job after dealing with the new monocote, I don't even want to waste my money on ultrakote after this last episode with monocote. So that brings me around to the chineese arfs, I bought a super skybolt, it was supposedly covered with monocote, not the checker portion, it's a printed low temp garbage, so I can't even buy a poor quality monocote covered plane now?

I've built 2 LT-40's and converted one to electric. One 4*60, a Seniorita, converted to electric and a Kougar converted to electric, and a Citabria converted to electric. I also have the Dornier Do 217 Kit. I plan to but the King Kobra as well as a 4*40 and one of their Cub kits. Their 1/5 scale laser cut Cub looks great. I find their kits to be of very good quality and provide many great hours of enjoyment building. Oh yes, a Senior would be a nice plane to convert...
Sig kits seem to beg conversion to electric. I built my Seniorita with additional ailerons and it flies great on a Hyperion 3020-12 and 3S Lipo. The Kougar is a screamer using a Scorpion 3026-10, 5S Lipo and 10X7 APCE prop. Of course I use an 80 amp ESC as the motor/prop combo is drawing over 60 amps and just a tad over 1Kw. This baby goes vertical forever and screams over the runway from altitude. Lotsa fun and very stable....flies like it's on rails. I delayed the maiden for a month as I was so nervous about flying it, thinking it would be squirrely, but it is very stable.
I definately plan to buy more Sig kits.
Thank You Glen and Hazel Sig!
Don't forget MaxeyHester!