As you all know Nitromodel is less than desirable where customer service is concerned. Last week I asked what the control throws are for the low wing trainer over email. I got a response and instead of just telling me what I needed to know they asked me what my old invoice number was and didn’t give me the throw info! Considering I bought the thing months ago I don’t have the info anymore. I let them know this and never got a response. I know this is only a little issue and I am only one customer but if I ran my business that way I would be out of business! I am putting this in the beginners section as a warning to new guys like me that want to get a cheap model until they learn. It is hard enough to keep an airplane in the air and real tough when you don’t know what the throws are. Man I should have just bought the Goldberg Tiger!

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/forumid_456/tt.htm
Try asking on their support forum. Even if they don't respond, someone else may with the answer.

Your anger is understandable, but take heart. The suggested throws ain't gospel. Matter of fact, they're often not right.

If there is one thing this hobby teaches the beginner, it's that you can do it yourself. With today's ARFs you better learn that.

Don't let not knowing the mfg's numbers stop you for a second. Get the numbers if you can between now and the next trip to the field but don't put off flying for a second.

If you've got a similar sized or type airplane look at it's throws. Just look at them. Then setup your throws to look about the same. You'll be good to go. If you want, check the angle the other model moves it's surfaces. Just a rough idea is good enough. And set your NM trainer to deflect about those angles.

Beginners usually have an experienced modeler maiden their new birds. Experienced modelers will usually look at what throws you've got on the airplane and either decide to fly or show you how to get what they know will work for the first flights. And they'll then fly it and get a feel for exactly which way the throws ought to go, more or less.

The mfg's numbers are just starting points anyway.

Don't put too much faith into nitromodels. More or less, when you buy something from them, you're buying it at a flea market or on E-bay. If you go to their site and count all the "sold out" models, they are the exact same models they were "sold out" of since day 1. Their "suggested retail price" is just that .... for a NAME brand model using quality balsa and quality hardware. Just remember one thing when you deal with the cheaper "economy" brands: You get what you pay for. If you got it for $150 less than what the name brands are selling for, there's $150 worth of something missing.

Da'Rock hit it on the head.

Unfortunately the Asian ARF's are not really planes suitable for beginners.

It's a "if you have to ask, it's not for you" situation more often than not. Ugh.


The upside is that you can pick up a plane for 150.00 less ( contrary to Broke_N_bumming's post ) that is of good quality...
Case in point check out the CMP Cessna's they are selling. They are exceptional planes for the price.

However it CAN be a crap shoot, so it pays to ASK.

Historically the CMP manuals are abysmal. The C.G. figures rarely correct, and the throws figures hardly useful.

When in doubt, find a similiar plane and use it as a guide. This works fairly well for things such as throws and building pointers.
Any on-line C.G. calculator can be used to verify and double check C.G. figures.

Thanks everyone for helping! I have a flight instructor that will maiden my plane for me. It just bothers me when I don't know something that should be real easy to find out ya know? Anyway you live you learn and I will take to heart that "you get what you pay for". Considering I bought this airplane for $45 and shipping was free as a promotion I have no room to complain I guess. Even if it is crap and falls apart in a few months it will have served it's usefulness as a stepping stone right!

Thanks all,

Joey V.

May you be pleasantly surprised!

Your airplane May not be 'Crap' at all. Its most likely China Model Products which is mostly what NitroPlanes sell.

Nitro Planes is simply a US reseller and judging what I have seen it may well be no one in that company even flys or knows anything about actually using the product. Which explains a lack of any support or real knowledge avaliable for the customer.

When you want to sell an RC airplane at consistantly cheaper prices than the majors, You do it in two ways. You either provide a transparent owner/user manual and or you include the lowest common denominator hardware packages.

The user manual and manual development in the language of the end user is arguably the most expensive portion of any new airplane package.

Even though some of the most expensive arf's are made in the same pacific rim factorys as the cheapest the real differance is the expense the reseller has choosen to invest for user end manual, anywhere from nothing to a major portion of the product cost and what hardware the reseller has specified. Anywhere from leftover known non fuunctional product to the quality stuff.

CMP makes some fine airplanes but user manuals and or hardware depending on the reseller may or may not be usable.

John

A very fair assessment IMHO.

I wouild agree with most of the negativity here towards Nitroplanes as a "see I told you so" but I may be accused of "bashing" a product by Blw

Imagine that! Maybe the American consumer will someday wake up and realize there's more to a buying decision than who has the lowest price. Maybe...

That would be the time to sell off Wal-Mart stocks. It would also bring those outsourced jobs back home, a very good thing.

Of course the cheapest ARF made here would be at least ten times more expensive that what we are getting them for now too.

---

Some people need more handholding, after market support, better manuals, etc. These goodies have a higher associated cost... which is one reason why Tower and Horizon have higher margins. Given their ability to move product, the "big boys" could be just as cheap if they dropped a lot of their staff ( something I hope they NEVER do! ).

If you understand what's up going in, there's no problem either way.

The consternation and knashing of teeth typically occurs because someone is caught by surprise when they purchase a cheap ARF and find that no-one is able to answer build questions on it... ooops.

If you have prior experience and go at it aware of the inherent caveats, you can pick up a cheap ARF from any of the myriad of companies such as NP.