Yes Tony you are right I will never see the $19,500.00 I guess that is how we treat our fellow hobby-est, but what really erks me is I see my Titan that Kevin scamed out of me going from plane to plane oh is that another $3,800.00. Oh I guess he earned that wrecking my jets and stealing my money. (That must be the way we do it in the hobby) If we cant earn it we will steal it!


Ron

I think I would have to agree with Dave on this one Kevin. Your friends, good or bad, are not the issue here. Obviously they are not friends if they are stating that you are telling less than the truth. All I know is that you did NOT pay for a new kit.[:'(] Shame Shame!!

Your right, I know something you do not know that I know

.

KEVIN SAID (Vin Difabbbio and Ron Long, who are club members of mine. Real nice flying buddies,)





Kevin lets not make any mistakes. I am a lot of things but I am not your flying buddy, I simply could not keep buying jets for you to crash and I am not here making false statements.


Ronald R Long

.

Kevin wrote: <<<what do you say NOW!!! >>>

What i have to say is you called me right after the crash and told me the jet flew nice after you switched to low elev rates for about 4mins. It was on final when you dorked it??? nothing like the description in the above post.More lies...
V...

KEVIN WROTE (I have purchased 5 jets from Skymaster)

Kevin were are they did they end up here? with my $10,000.00 Bandit That must be the 20 years of experience showing through.




Ron

Kevin,

I spoke to you on after the crash too and you told me:
1) that it went near vertical on takeoff
2) that you recovered and flew it around for about 4 minutes
3) it fell out of the sky when you were attempting to land
4) you had told Vincent what happened (points 1-3 above)
5) you hoped that Vincent wouldn't post anything about it on RCU (even though people were asking how the maiden went)
6) you asked me not to post anything about it
7) you told me that your story was going to be that it stalled on take off and went in and that you were trying to get a FREE REPLACEMENT KIT from Skymaster (to which I thought, Good Luck)

To me it sounds pretty simple......incorrect elevator setup (you mentioned that you didn't know where to set the elevator at neutral since there were no marks on the fuselage or notes on this in the instructions). Maybe you should have asked someone who has successfully flown the plane.

The thing that really pi$$es me off about this is item 7) above. I don't know how you managed to convince SM to give you another kit but apparently you did. You knew that it was wrong and that you wanted to keep it a secret. Well, it's a small world in the modelling community and the story always gets out.

Your version......

is one of the premier cases of hair-splitting that I've ever seen. I can't see the logic in it, possibly because there isn't any.

I tried giving you the benefit of the doubt. Not anymore. I'm done with you.

Jim

Ok, hold on here.

The supa hornee sounds like it did a classic hop off the tarmac with a no flaps take off. No surprise there. ALL OF US REGULAR HORNET FLYERS HAVE DONE THAT OR HEARD ABOUT THAT.

I think the airplane was set up fine but after an unexpected take off like that, the pilot was probably so shaken that he was having a VERY hard time controlling his nerves and then his airplane 'causing an eventual demise. Supa hornees fly great but are far from ***** cats.

I don't even want to think of what would happen if he tried to land that supa w/o flaps.

Ok, so now he tries to get a replacement airplane. Big deal if he tries to get one for free. If he can get away with it, I'd be jealous to but I'd be out of line complaining about it.

What's the big deal if he's trying to get one for free? If I was Anton, I'd say "I'm sorry but I'll give you a great deal on another one. "

The bandit story, we don't know the specifics about that one.....[]

Raf

Hmmmmmmm?

Raf, check your PM's

I see your point Raffy but I cant agree with you on letting him get away with a free plane for his obvious screw up. By doing what he is doing he is essentially ruining the chances for other people to get proper service from manufacturers. They don't make these planes to just give them away, someone has to eat the cost of the plane and in the long run that means no more planes from some manufacturers.

But you are right, if he had no flaps on the take off that would have been a very obvious mistake. Also on the Skymaster F-18 that I flew I noticed that the spring in the nose gear was a little soft causing a more than normal nose down attitude on the ground. On take off roll I had to hold about 1/2 elevator and upon rotation had to ease off the elevator so the plane wouldn't go hard vertical. Either way, it was pilot error no doubt. It doesn't help though that the stories are not straight, too bad, but glad I know who the bad eggs are.[:@]

Raf,

Specifics on Bandit. When I started flying models last September I bought BVM's Composite Bandit there Demo plane from Bob V. Bob sent it to me in a jet case, turn key with a 7 channel spectrum radio. He told me it would be a great

trainer. I agree It was. When I first got it I had flown the plane on buddy box with Tony Quist a few times and was thrilled with the plane. Well Kevin was out of town when this plane was brought out of the box.that is why I was flying

with Tony Quist. When Kevin came in town a few days later he scolded me for flying with other people and told me I needed to stick to one instructor and that is himself. (Remember Kevin charged me a jet cat titan to teach me how to

fly).(the same one that is in the F-18) although at the time I did not know that he was not on our club approved instructor list(Humm wonder why) Any way Keven went out with me a few times and after another mishap with Kevin

pulling the plane from me on a bad judgement call he of course damaged my plane on his own. At this point he stated that he does not like the radio (THE TRAINER BUTTON HURTS HIS FINGER) So he will no longer fly the plane with me

till I change out the receiver to a spectrum so we can use the 10X radio. At that point I should have just found a new instructor,(But remember I have already paid him a JetCat Titan) But I did not my bad. I explain to Kevin that I am a

(if it's not broken don't fix it kind of guy). I also tell Kevin I really don't even know how to change out the receiver. Remember I have been flying models about a month now. Kevin tells me he can do it in about 10 minutes. So he comes

over to my house swaps out the receiver and says lets go fly. We get to the field and do a range check. I am the guy with the radio walking away from the plane moving the sticks. Keven waives me in says were good. I hand him the

radio and tell him you modified it you fly it. I will fly next flight. Kevin takes off (THE PLANE LIFTS OFF FADES TO THE LEFT THEN SHARP RIGHT THEN SPIRALS STRAIT TO THE GROUND) the Black smoke starts to billow. you can still here

the turbine running from the pitts as the fire starts. We both run out to the plane about 1500 feet away Kevin puts out the fire with my fire extinguser and then hands it to me says here that will only cost you about $35.00 to refill it. I will

never forget that. My plane was a total loss. Next Kevin starts with oh it was a lock out oh it was in fail safe oh the batteries must have failed. the excuses went on and on. Never a offer to replace my plane I was told by Kevin that is

how the hobby goes. nobody replaces airplanes if they crash them that is just how it goes. Well the club meeting happen to be that same day about 2 hours later. Some other people that were at the field brought up the crash and said it

looked like a classic case of reversed ailerons. By now kevin calls Vin and tells him( well I think I may have not binded the second satelight and that caused the failsafe) Here is the point. IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING

DON'T EXPERIMENT WITH SOMEONE ELSES PLANES) So next thing I went home, took out both radios the 10X and the spectrum set them side by side and check the alieron settings. They were exactly opposite from 1 radio to the other.

After a years worth of exposure I have finally got a I'm Sorry but still never even any type of gesture of replacement. But when Kevin dumps in his own plane again from his own inability he expects skymaster to replace the kit or at

the least give him a good gesture discount. I ask what does Ron Long Get for his dumped in plane? The story goes on but that is the gist of the Bandit.


FYI AFTER THIS THE CLUB ASSIGNED ME A CLUB APPROVED INSTRUCTOR, I WENT THROUGH THE CLUB PROCESS AND GUESS WHAT IT WAS FREEEEEEEEEE! Thank you Dan Jacobson and Tony Quist (approved instructors)



Ronald R Long

Dang Ron - that's hard to read. Cantcha put a blank line in here & there to help old farts like myself focus better ?

-

Ok - now that I managed to read it, it's even harder to read - this time because of the painful content rather than the layout.

Man, I need to find guys like you in my neck of the woods. A jetcat Titan in exchange for a little 'help' (? if that's the right word).

Please move to the Bay Area. Between Dave Presta and myself, we have a whole load of goodies that we need, that we can hopefully find some way of making you buy for us...

Nice post Ron...no bashing just simple facts as it happened. You don`t deserve compensation but he does??
V..

Gordon,

that better Yes Vin That is exactly as it happened. I think you remember the incident and all the excuses. Wasn't Kevin over at your office with the smoldering wreck in the back of his truck making excuses a hour after it happened.

Jim be happy that you have learned early.


Ron

That Bandit flew great.

So what is the real story Kevin

is it the Vin Story or is it the Jim story or somewere in between, and which version did Sung and Anton Get.


Ron

Boy ! you West Coasters are sure up early.... IMO Kevin you should take a sabbatical from this hobby & RCU .... you keep on getting yourself deeper in the S**t

Semper Fi
Joe

PS of all the photo's I've posted. The one that gets all the press is the one of the smoking corn field....... Ha !

Joe,

Do you you mean this one???? it looks very similer to my Bandit! just take away the corn and add cactus.


Ron

Dave Presta,

Next time you post your gospel as fact, you may want to check with the AMA

"So what does the eye witness have to say about it? Lets hear from him/her. I'm sure you were complying with AMA regulations and had a spotter with you at the field, lets hear what they have to say about it. What? You were at the field by yourself with no spotter? Oh you were? Who was it? "


Kevin

Gordon,

I did not know what the norm was. I guess mabe I should have checked around. I did not expect to get hooked up with the scamer of the west . Could have been worse I could of let him show me how to fly the metal=morph Sabre.


Ron

wow quite a story... painful to read, I guess every quality assurance system has its flaws, that guy Kevin doesnt deserve a turbine waiver. I'm glad I was able to learn turbines by myself up here...

We still never really hear how the crash occured! (JEALOUSY IS UGLY) SHOULD i BE JEALOUS OF A GUY RIPPING VENDERS OFF THAT THE REST OF US WILL DEAL WITH AT SOME POINT OR ANOTHER? No I will be angry because when a real situation that deserves attention such as Vins for example, it will not happen. Why because the scammer all ready used up the alotment of good will. that was set aside for those type of situations.So the point is by you screwing SKY MASTER You are really srewing all of us. Do you get it now Kevin Marks.


Ronald R Long

I hear ya – and in case it wasn't clear, my post was not in any way intended to mock you for being apparently taken advantage of … rather, I meant it as a compliment about how generous you're willing to be.

Stories like this remind me just how much I owe to guys like Chris Huhn, Tony Frackowiak, Buck Garza et al who helped me get started in turbines back in 2000 or so. Those guys were unstinting and selfless with their help, giving freely of their time and experience and they never once expected anything from me. They set the standard of helpfulness to newbies that I do my best to emulate but can never quite match.

I think this is a timely reminder to many of us, to take note of how fortunate most of us have been in getting free help from some of the coolest guys on the planet.

Gordon