Back in late December I bought the Art-Tech F-18 from Nitroplanes. I received the model about January 7th. Those following my assembly have been helpful answering my questions. Problems started right away.

1. The website gives a range of 3000 ft. The included book says 1000 ft. I didn't even unpack
theplane until someone convinced me 1000 ft was good enough. The site still says 3000.
2. About a week later I finally unpacked everything. I was not impressed at all with the way the parts
fit. The canopy was glued off center leaving a 1/8" gap. I pulled it off and re-glued it in the center.
3. Then I noticed the control horn on the left elevator was fastened on crooked, about 30 degrees out
of line. I tried contacting customer service a few times over the next week and gave up waiting
both times.I finally took the thing off and re-fastened it straight.
4. I went to attach the front nose gear and couldn't get the set screw in. Dropped it on the floor and
spent a few hours looking for it. Never did find it so finally went to a hardware store and bought
another. Still wouldn't go in. Finally got the magnfyinig glassout and looked closer. The setscrew
hole was not tapped and wasn't drilled deep enough to penetrate to lock the gear in place. Gave
up fora few days, then finally went and bought a drill bit and tap. Got that fixed.
5. Finally got the thing assembled but the paint job was terrible. Spent a week or more figuring how
I wanted it to look, and another week masking and painting.
6. The plane looked good so it was time to think about a first flight. Then the snow came and came.
7. Got bored and decided to charge the battery and taxi it around the basement. Everything went well
for about 30 seconds. Then the right elevator servo started jerking the locked up.

That was the final straw. I had put a lot of time and effortin this airplane and replacing the servo was not something I had any idea how to do. Besides, this plane has never been operated till now.

I called customer serviceto see what my options were. After a 15 minute wait I actually got a live person.Told him about the servo locking up. Gave him myoriginal order numberand he informs me there is nothing he can do because I bought itover 30 days ago. Excuse me? I live in northwestindiana, its winter here and I was not in any hurry to finish it, only to be tempted to fly it in thesnow. Besides, I work two jobs and don't have muchtime to work on it.No offer to replace the servo, no offer toeven sell me one, NOSOLUTIONATALL. Now I have apretty piece of junk that I don'thave a clue how toeven fix. So much for 100% satisfaction.

The web master would have to be notified to change the ad, but that person doesn't check in here...

I had the same problem with one of mine, ( BTW: My paint scheme looks GREAT ). I ended up replacing the servo with on of the TowerPro 9G servos and have not had a problem since.

You can either change the servo out ( easiest fix ) or PM John here with the above.

Be sure to include your order number.

However since the Art-Tech's are no longer being sold, if you do PM him, ask for a substitute if he does not have a way of fixing what you have.

I'd just replace the servo. Much easier...

ok website has changed to reflect 1000ft. Range is not going to be a problem for you because you never fly the plane outside of your line of sight.

John
Nitro Planes

Most Nitroplanes.com planes that I have has always been a builders ARF, I feel sorry for the people who have no idea how to correct mistakes during builds.

For the $$ though you cant beat it

Although I'm totally new to all of this (and my first plane is not yet complete), I agree. It seems to me that if everything fit and worked perfectly - without a personal "improvement" or mod here and there - it wouldn't be as satisfying. Of course my Catalina may suffer major structural failure the moment it takes to the sky, so perhaps I should reserve judgement on that for a while.