RE: Lanier Quality
 

Joen's post from Denmark serves to remind me of how fortunate we are to live in America!

Inspectors and registration fees for model planes - sounds like government of Denmark has far too much time and money on their hands!!!

DT56

RE: Lanier Quality
 

Try and see what it is like in other countries. I haven't even been to Denmark, but I've lived in Germany and visited other countries like Holland and Belgium. Those countries are jam packed with people, buildings, and roads. It is almost impossible to find a place like the little field we take for granted where I live. What I learned in Germany from the rc people was that crowded conditions meant lawsuits if a plane went out of control and the unthinkable happened. I was really surprised by this and that was in 1983! Plus, it doesn't take a lot of surfing on RCU to find that most European countries suffer from strict noise controls. I remember reading a message from a guy in England who was asking for help to get his OS .46FX to pass the noise test. Yikes! So, I would find the inspection system understandable. Also, I know that you have to take 'checkrides' in England to participate in their tiered system. We have it pretty good in almost all aspects.

Okay, I've said my thing about what European rc people have to deal with. I'm certainly not one to enjoy excessive bureacracies! Ask anybody who knows me. I find most rules unbearable. I'm not defending senseless rules/regs. Just thought I would throw this in before I get flamed.

I think Joen would appreciate the wide open freedoms that a lot of us have over here if he were to fly with us. We, on the other hand, would find it frustrating a lot of times to fly in Europe. And, I didn't mention the excessive costs of nitro in a lot of countries either.

Only Joen and other Danes can tell us if the system is excessive.

editted to add: DT-56, I wasn't trying to come on as argumentive and maybe I didn't do a good job. I see what you meant after I reread what you wrote.

RE: Lanier Quality
 

Hmm. I was actually thinking that Denmark is on the ball. The proliferation of those 40% and up ARFs with 100cc engines cranking out ten or more horsepower readily available to anyone with a cedit card is a truly unnerving reality these days. Add to that the current trend to fly very close in to the flightline/spectator area and hover, etc. and it's a wonder the AMA is still able to provide insurance.

Anyway, this is a timely thread since one, I just dug out an old Lanier Stinger kit last week that was half built with the intention of finishing it, and two, I just finished stripping the Monokote off of a Goldberg Tiger 2 kit I built about ten years ago that I plan to recover with Worldtex (I'm no longer a fan of plastic film).

I now remember why the Stinger was only half finished. The laser cutting and wood parts fit was very nice and went together well. However, all that ridiculous plastic is another story. So I sort of redesigned the top half of the plane by building it out of balsa. I'm not sure why I bought the kit in the first place, but foam and vacuform are not my idea of fun modeling. It's like they designed the kit part way with nice wood and laser cutting and then just decided to quit and simply throw in a bunch of plastic to finish it off. I won't buy another Lanier, but not because of the quality, because I don't enjoy those particular building methods. Fair enough.

Now, the Goldberg kit pre-dates the Lanier acquisition. In the process of removing the film and sanding the structure I can see that the model was maybe under designed. Goldberg clearly cut corners to keep the price down (or their profits up, which is completely unrelated to price, btw). The balsa density is inconsistent and in many cases the wrong grain is used for certain parts. The wing has shear webbing, but the pieces only cover about 3/4 of each wing bay and do not extend to each rib. I figure they saved maybe less than a foot of material/25 cents with that decision. The LE sheeting is very thin on the wing. I can punch through it by breathing on it. The tail is much too flimsy in my opinion and the wood is either too soft or too dense. The only part of the plane that I would call high quality is the liteply fuse. It builds into a very straight and study structure that is remarkably light.

So, the Stinger went back in its box until one day when I'm really bored. The Tiger I decided to work on and get ready for covering. I sheeted the built-up tail surfaces with 1/16. They are still very light but are now far more rigid and will look a lot better when covered. Since I'm putting in a 4-stroke this time the extra weight will cancel out anyway. There wasn't much I could do to the wing other than go over any weak glue joints and handle it very carefully. It won't survive a deadstick in a cornfield, though.

On the other hand, I love Goldberg's plans. They are well drawn and provide a lot of info. If I build another Tiger I will use the plans and not buy another kit.

For what it's worth, I just finished scratchbuilding a Goldberg Senior Falcon from plans and I felt that every aspect of that design was well engineered. Of course, it is a forty year old design and I selected all my own balsa, both of which make a big difference.

All of the planes I have lined up to build are no longer available as kits - only in plan form - so unless someone gives me one of the new "Lanberg" kits I guess I'll never know how they build.

RE: Lanier Quality
 

BLWBLW, your rigth on the spot, but it is not bad or we have just adjusted our minds to it, it would however be VERY nice to fly almost anywhere without noise restrictions, which is the biggest factor to overcome, noise limit in general are up to the citcouncil to decide, fluing fields way in the open, if we are able to get the permission from those livinf "nearby" .
At our field we do have a noise limit on 82dB with engine running full thrittle at 10 m. distance ehhh that's 33 feet. plane 3 feet above ground.

The fee does include insurance to, I dont think it is crazy, but sometimes people does crazy things, and these rules an restrictions are only meant as a help to us, however we are not allowed planes over 25 kgs (56 pounds)inc. fuel and smoke oil.

Rainedav, excastly Lanier do some nice things and turttledeck in ABS!! I did throw my away a made a built up off balsa and light ply, quality off balsa in the kit did go from soft to hard without any reason.

Joen