Jester241

What are some of your guys' opinions of Goldberg planes? I'm almost done rebuilding a 77" yak 54 ARF (yeah,the nice red,white,and blue one) that a buddy game me. I always thought goldberg was a top of line even as far as ARF's go. While fixing it up,I was VERY dissapointed in its construction quality. The glue was like the hot melt stuff that didnt soak into the wood,let alone stick. And the fuse constuction was VERY inadequite even for an ARF. No wonder it snapped completely in half,lol. I've built several cheapo ARF's,but this goldberg was the worst built one yet. And the sad part is......this goldberg was a $400.00 ARF. I will say,its the nicest looking ARF I know of though and has ALOT of covering detail. Anyway,I was just wondering what other thought of goldberg.

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

An ARF is something you should not associate with any one maker or brand name, that same plane can show up with A different covering and be sold under any other brand. There is another thread going on right now with some folks that are unhappy with CG kits and or the wood, something you can say today about almost any kit builder today. I happen to really like the CG kits but that's the true Carl Goldberg, not an ARF. The question just isn't fare, ARFs are OK short term but but all of them are junk in the long term. It's that hot glue thing!!

hanko

I think he was a fine Jew

da Rock

ARFs really are a new deal.

One thing that remains with the few Goldberg's left on the market is the design. The Tigers still are excellent flyers. I was greatly pleased with the TigerII with an OS46AX and later a 55AX on it. The Tiger60 is really awesome. Great trainer and would be competitive in Pattern if the event wasn't judged by humans. The Eagle is an excellent flyer and great trainer. Skylark and Falcon56 ...... what can you say.

As for their Chinese mfg's quality control. What can you say. Depends on which factory is doing Falcon56s today and not Barbie dolls. My Tiger60 came with the steel elevator connector cracked. Was chromed right over the crack. I took it's picture and then put some pressure on it. Snap. Rest of the plane was gorgeous and has stood up to some hard use. But what can you say about workers who have no idea what's important and what's not. Critical component? They don't have a clue.

Nowadays, we're in a different hobby than when Carl was making and selling his kits. As modelers we have to do it differently today. We did QC as we built the models and learned to replace bad wood and bad mfg'd bits. Now we gotta do sort of a QA job on most of what's in the box, and most we can't inspect internally.

Is CG as good as H9 and GreatPlanes stuff? Close. But they all suffer from being mfg'd by people who aren't really into modeling in their leisure time. Some retailers seem to make up for it better than others.

fujiman

My Feedback: (133)

goldberg models have gone missing!!!! (nobody's gettn' off this rock alive)

flaminheli

The CG kits have always been top quality as far as I am concerned. I cannot comment on the ARFs because I have never purchased a CG ARF.

jetmech05

I have the Goldberg Ultimate ARF....the aircraft just turned 2 this Christmas...never had a problem

DavidAgar

My Feedback: (108)

Goldberg kits are some of the best on the market. As for the AFRs, I am a staunch no ARF modeler as I have had nothing but bad experiences with ARFs and I enjoy building kits or scratch building. Most all the problems that I have had with them is the lack of glue used. One of them had the firewall fall out when power was applied for take off. An exam revealed that each of the four edges of the firewall had one drop of hot glue holding it in. Had another one that had the wing mount bolt plate pop loose in flight. Once again, lack of glue. I am sure that there are good ARFs out there, I am just not willing to go find them. Good Luck, Dave

red head

As some of you know the Goldberg line was sold to Lanier a few years back, that should be enough said, and I believe that is where the ARF's for GB started. Then Lanier sold out to I believe Great Planes and allmost all the ARF's are made in China, probably by just a couple company's .

As far as ARF's go you are getting what you paid for, if you want better you need to build KIT's, not assemble ARF's.

Now I'm off my bandwagon and will admit that I do both and get what I pay for, my choice and NO complaints. ENJOY !!! RED

jetmech05

Red....Goldberg and Lainer were bought at the same time by Great Planes..my bet there was an issue of some kind that tied Lanier and Goldberg together....I had my first Goldberg ARF before they were bought by Great Planes

red head

jetmech05: I agree that they were both bought by Great Planes at the same time. The reason for that was because Lanier owned Goldberg at that time because they had bought Goldberg a couple (?) years earlier. I think BUBBA just wanted out and Great Planes made an offer at the right time. They do that to a lot of smaller company's. ENJOY !!! RED