Condor060

My Feedback: (2)

Hey Pete, I ordered the F18 DV airframe only 90mm. It was delivered on time and everything inside the box was perfect. I am installing a custom 6Ssetup(fan, motor, and esc) from Extreme RC out of AUSTRALIA. My problem is I can't find any evidence of carbon spars in the wings and I can't fly this setup withoutthem. How can I tell if this is a V1 or V2. Thanks

Condor060

My Feedback: (2)

sanman55

When will people ever learn... rcgroups and this one havve complaints over and over from day one. But people keep ordering for the great BH. Pete sounds real nice but it is a scam .. There is no support and will never be any.I guess people say oh, it could never happen to me..
You have a lot of money wrapped up in this.. so sorry but people have tried and tried to warn all about this crap shoot..you might or might not get it.. I will repeat a story I read a long time ago...Guy orcered a plane with radio trans... The transmitter did not work so he call and got a new transmitter.... When he got it the right stick was frozen so he opened it up and saw that the board was broken and their was dirt inside... He also noticed someone had their name scratched on the bottom....If they will send that out they will do anything...
I hope you make your new years wish to stay away form bad hobby dealers..,
Good luck and a happy new year to all.. May you get what you want and have no crashes...

dannd42

Hello everyone!!!!!!!!!!!

I really need to be a part of this board. In a way think of me as a clean slate.

I know of the bad press for BH and my local hobby shop actually told me he would not order from them.

Bad service bad parts etc.... Written a million times before....


But here is my log and I will try to be as honest as possible.(even if it becomes embarassing)

Day 1, 1/1/2010 (New year , My story and a New SR71 edf)

As a smart consumer I went to the local hobby store first to research this bird.
I was alreay hooked by pete's video and I really really really wanted this one. Christmas money in hand, my local guy told me he would not order from BH. I said why?? He said bad news all around.

****Brief interuption for my story*****
Well I was never one to take advice even good You see when I started in this hobby I was 12 years old and full of wonder. All hopes were smashed upon my first visit to a real hobby store 22yrs ago. The arrogance of people then (and now) still amaze me. Look we all know a newbie shouldn't buy a plane above his skill, but there is a right and wrong way to tell him. Back then it was definately the wrong way. Regardless, I purchased my first glider (gentle lady..remember??) and began to teach myself. It took me a year to build and with no help I taught myself through a series of crashes. The fatal flight ended after a sucessfull landing .. how you ask??? Yes I fell on my plane when i slipped on the wet grass. ugh!!!! Built 2 balsa cessnas after that one gas and one electric and crash both of those on the first flight beyond repair.The rebuilt the gentle lady from scratch with an elictric motor. Flew it once succesfully..counted my blessing and stored it away for 14 years (until my wife knockedit off a shelf in the garage and then ran over it. Didn't hurt ...sniff....

Anyhow, luckily the rtf market today allows a newbie to crash a perfectly good plane in order to learn his (or in 2010her) lesson. So I bought a supercub.. BESTADVICEOUTTHEREISTOGETAPark zone SC!!!!!
Crash that one beyond recognition after a couple flights. Then I downloaded FMS (with a cheap Best buy controler) and tried the simulator for it (about 4 hrs of flight time). Rebuilt the SC and flew like I had always done it.. I mean it was that easy....

I even added floats!!!! flew it in my lake (literally) neede to purchase a few reciever but they always had extra at my shop so...

I am a decent flier now... got a T28 and am pretty good with that too. not gr8 but I avoid the simple crashes now. Still practice every winter on fms (Gr8 free software for a newb.. best price is no price)

*****So back too the story*****

SR71

Ordered on 1-1-10
shipped 1-8-10
in transit and due wednesday next week.

Say what you want now. I will be totally honest with everyone when I open this box next weekend. But just remember, I am exactly the type of guy the avrg flier says shouldn't be up in the air. so if I listened to you guys 12 years ago I may have had extra money in my pocket but I would have neverenjoyed this awesome hobby.

Sincere regards,
Dan

sanman55

I don't care any more..I will never order from bh.. I would love the new b2 but just can't trust them.. I never gamble and thats what this is.. When the BBB gives you an F rateing..well to me that says it all. I hope you get your plane..you might be one of the lucky ones .. Even if you get it , if you have any problems or need spare parts...good luck..
I will not order from someone that I can not talk to when I want,0r has a bad BBB rateing...
These rateings mean something, they are for the comsumer..
I just read this now for intertainment..and if you have never flown a edf, esp. a thwitchy one,.. you are in for some interesting flying.
Good luck
p.s.
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showt...04673&page=147 ck. out this site for some more examples of their fair service.
The gentle lady was my first plane too.. what a nice flying bird and I learned to fly on my own..too.. Till I found out that there a great club a short drive away.

dannd42

I hope no one out ther gets the wrong idea. I am really trying not being naive about the situation with BH.
I have just decided to take the risk regardless of the outcome.

I think when there are opportunties/danger out there it is best to be as realistic as possible about the risks. I may get crap...or i may get a sweet plane.. can't wait to tell everone the result.

Thanks for the advice on the edf.. i expect it to be extremely difficult and I actually decided to purchase it now to prevent me from flying until spring. More time to force a practice on the FMS software. By the way, what advice do you have in flying edfs? any sim models out there you would suggest?

dan

j301

My Feedback: (12)

Its an interesting testimony to the human condition. All you have to do, for example, is to proclaim "man this stinks" and stand back to watch the lemmings line up to take a whiff.
I'm like sanman, I haven't posted in a long time but I still watch for the entertainment.

sanman55

Why take the chance ..you can get the sr from other places as cheap..
As far as flying the edf...Its just different ..You have to fly ahead of it...if you slow down too much you might stall and not recover..Some of these birds land a lot different...It depends on the thrust too..You will need expo in the radio.. I was not trying to be over the top..they fly like most planes but you just need experience..It is a advanced flyer. and you only get their with many flights on other birds..Most don't have the quick recovery from a power on.when stalling. They have to build up their speed.
If you have a club near I would join.. There are buts eveerlywhere ,, but most are helpful..Keep you speed up, esp. in a turn..I have a friend loose a nice rc landers panther cause he wanted to see how it stalled.. He did.. it spun and he never recovered..
You will need a nice paved runway for this bird...A long set up for landing is preferred..
I am just amazed at all the bad stories and people still want to give them a change...If someone tells me that if I stick my hand in a fire it will burn,, I don't need to do that to believe it will.. People hear are just tired and mad and want to vent.. and maybe save others from their mistakes.

sanman55

I guess its the old statement.." it can never happen to me"

jmpdgs

My Feedback: (3)

This doesn't seem like brain surgery to me. If it looks like a duck and quacks and every other thing you hear about it says it's a duck, well.....
Why bother or take a chance on a company with such a huge following of devoted haters. IME RCrs aren't nasty demanding and vindictive, quite the opposite in fact. It's one of the only hobbies I know of where info is shared so openly and folks take great pleasure in helping each other out. Granted, I've only been doing it for forty some odd years so as a newbie, I might be somewhat naive, but I don't think so.

There are plenty of legitimate web-based businesses both in the US and abroad with great customer reps and I just can't imagine that saving ten bucks can begin to compete with that.

Just my 2Cs

sanman55

Well said

rmoten

My Feedback: (3)

have you received your new 101.5 glider?if so be very careful received mine and it caught fire as soon as i plugged in the battery! no return call from banana hobby,should i expect one anytime soon.

dbailey3887

rmoten

My Feedback: (3)

it's a shame that we all offer up our money freely for this hobby we love so such.and all we get is grief from this company,they have on desire in cleaning up there act.they choose to run there business in this manner,. maybe they are getting too many orders to opperate there business properly.so lets all make a little easiser on them and not order anything from them.remember it's about the money,it's time they pay the price for there poor service at best. no one likes being ripped off.

bad400

the problem is, no one does a check on where they are buying from.
if they did banana hobby would be out of business by now, then you have other`s that think people are complaining over nothing.
but it`s funny, because when they buy from banana and get screwed, they never come back to the forum`s to tell the truth.

dannd42

hello banana haters
:-)

just kidding.hahaha


Got pretty busy this week with the auto show. but I finally got to my personal emails again.

Reminder I was the one who posted about my SR71 order from BH.

And here is the truth.

My order shipped 3 days after my order on line.
I followed up on the online customer support immediately. (Figured squeeky wheel gets the grease.)
It does suck a bit that you have to use this during California Business hours but it worked just fine.

anyhow, shipped ground  6th-7th and took a week to get here. I followed the tracking number the entire time.

Not opening it until today totally drove me nuts as the quailty upon reciept is a big issue with this group.

And the result so far.....
no damage.
all parts present
sent me an extra battery!
pretty simple assembly.(Translated instruction suck no matter what the product)
Ran through the table top engine  tests and no issues there either.This thing stayed cool and is going to scoot!!
Quality of the details, paint shadess, and decals were pretty good. (haven't checked it yet to the actual schematics yet, but it all looks acurate for scale.)
Retracts are way too quick. Need to dial down the speed, but I'll wait til spring to do this. ($15 ?)
First impression People give me when they first see "wow! awesome plane" (luckily this is said in a good way
My first impresion is " I am glad I have bought this plane. It looks as good if not better as I hoped."


I even took it to the hobby store that didn't want to order frm bh. He was totally surprised by the equipment/quality. I had a little crowd towards the end looking this over. Don't worry guys, I told them all about this group and mentioned I bought this against all the good advice out there. I will try take pictures tommorow afternoon and if I figure out how to post them they will be added asap.

Preflight summary:
Good plane.
easy assy
no problem in ordering shippng



Side note:
The one independent review I saw of this plane from BH was pretty bad. but the rc transmitter was 72mhz??? not a 2.4 like mine. It makes me think that some of the issue with BH is the first release models. In the review, radio problems, esc, color shades, shipment damage were all present. However, I could see the countermeasures  to prevent these issues were implemented in my order. In my dealings with Oversea manufacturers, this is par for the course. My advice is that if it a first release wait a while until the second boat comes through. I have noticed most the fixes come on the second boat and you won't be delayed in recieving the product. Usually first boat shippment suffer from the Start Of Production delays and the product is rushed.

starman62

Hey dannd42 any pictures yet? Ready to see this thing, sounds awesome!

gmackaone

What is this endorse NASCAR driver montoya thing about? banana hobbys needs to stick with hobby, What about the none famous customers do they get treated the same?

tjm5837

What ?????

jmoon8459

I just order from banna. I wish I found out abou this site yesterday. Wish me well, looks like I'll need it. I ordered the alph 40 elect. fly.
jmoon8459

tjm5837

Have faith, think positive and don't expect too much.. I ordered from them several months back.. against all good advice. I was rewarded with my all time favorite plane, a blitz-rc pitts biplane. I has since had 2 replacement motors and an esc. It's still my favorite airframe and I got it in about 10 days. Miracles do happen. However I would not order from them again. I think I was one of the lucky ones. Let us know how it works out. Your in my prayers.

dannd42

I have to agree with you.


I did the same thing (tried my luck) and I love the look of my SR71. I may need to replace parts when I get some flight time on this plane but I am happy with the order and quality. So far I have run it through on my work bench and nothing is getting hot or sounding bad. Probably won't be able to fly until the spring but my expectations are in check and I really like this plane/equipment. This edf could end up being my favorit too.. But really can any of us choose? I have a lazy seaplane and I love it for completely different reasons. Then there is my t28, super cub, spitfire etc....

in the end any plane i fly and land successfully is my favorite

gmackaone

Hey guys! Your almost wright.Banana hobby only pays attention to the ones that spend the most or famous ! I Know!!! I used to work for them!!!! I tried to brake them from that habit , And told them numerous times "treat all the customers equal "I know for a fact if you complained about something less than $80 they would not care!!! anyway they where very close to losing everything one time but me and my wife saved them!
next thing I knew, They turned on me!!

sanman55

How many people do they have working there? I tried asking pete and he would never say.. I am trying to get an idea how big they are..
Why did they ax you?? please give us the inside scoop.....
Why were they going under and what did you do..??
Sorry for all the questions but you are the only one I now know that worked there.. Maybe you could give tips as to getting responses from them and service??
Looking forward to your answers

gmackaone

banana hobby at first I used to pick up bunch of planes n helis, Ufo's etc.Buy and sell.one day they asked I can work for them I thought cool discounts! Mabe "FREE". I excepted the position not knowing the only guy that worked there,(1 person) was about to get fired but before they did,They made him look like he was a free loader,taking up there space,being paid for nothing!!they called the next mornning,..dont come back.whatever,I Whent about my business office with paper everywhere old rma sitting colecting dust.Messy!! they didnt really say much his wife looking at me like superman using his x-ray vision!I took care of the emails for awhile carrie and dan did updating Dan with the site Carrie with orders printouts where she gave the order to the warehouse 1 guy! Making custom boxes. Now I see the wall of "RMA"I'm not going to lie! When customers sent back the stuff that where broken, They used the parts of the other "RMA" some of the stuff where passed as new!In my mind i was like that Is not cool weeks pass, And Im going nuts !I got 1,300 e-mail need to reply too talking to the customers Trying to get things out in time! Lots of stuff people where ordering was not there ! But the orders where charged anyways,more rma comming back and they wanted to refuse those packages i had to remind them that the customers pay the rent! anyway!! they didnt like me to give refunds I will continue In a little bit.