RE: questionable ad
 

I'm from that area and it is very common for people to have area codes from other states. We are about 50% military and from other states. after reading the ad and responses, I say it was legit. I bet he pulled the ad when a member from one of the local clubs offered to help him with it. From the sound of the owner though, I bet it will become a smoking hole in the ground fairly quickly unless he puts it up for a while.

RE: questionable ad
 

Hey Steve "O"
What time are you leaving for GA? Matt bailed on us so I'll be leaving out early Thursday morning now, and we'll take I-95 / I-20 route vs, I-85. Might see you along the way! ;)

RE: questionable ad
 

I think the story makes sense. He had a car for sale, and some guy shows up with this jet he paid "$20k" for and offers it. The guy is young and impulsive and living on the base so his expenses are low, so he goes for it. Let's hope the car wasn't worth more than about $6k for the current owner's sake. Then he pulls up some Youtube footage of jets and reads about it a little on the forums, and realizes that it's going to take time and effort to gain the skills to fly this thing. But he's young and impulsive though, so that ain't gonna happen. So he looks for the simplest way to get his money back out of it, and Google turns up RCU, RCG, and a few others. There are probably ads on some other sites too with the same conversations going on there as there are here. He describes it based on what the seller told him and 20 minutes of research could turn up and hopes for the best. To my mind, this would be a safe face to face deal assuming he's ok with the buyer checking with the local police to be sure there isn't a report about a stolen RC jet around, and assuming that a very thorough inspection doesn't turn up any problems. I'd want to see the thing fly before buying it personally, but that wouldn't be an option with this guy.

RE: questionable ad
 

I think the story makes sense. He had a car for sale, and some guy shows up with this jet he paid "$20k" for and offers it. The guy is young and impulsive and living on the base so his expenses are low, so he goes for it. Let's hope the car wasn't worth more than about $6k for the current owner's sake. Then he pulls up some Youtube footage of jets and reads about it a little on the forums, and realizes that it's going to take time and effort to gain the skills to fly this thing. But he's young and impulsive though, so that ain't gonna happen. So he looks for the simplest way to get his money back out of it, and Google turns up RCU, RCG, and a few others. There are probably ads on some other sites too with the same conversations going on there as there are here. He describes it based on what the seller told him and 20 minutes of research could turn up and hopes for the best. To my mind, this would be a safe face to face deal assuming he's ok with the buyer checking with the local police to be sure there isn't a report about a stolen RC jet around, and assuming that a very thorough inspection doesn't turn up any problems. I'd want to see the thing fly before buying it personally, but that wouldn't be an option with this guy.

RE: questionable ad
 

I think the story makes sense. He had a car for sale, and some guy shows up with this jet he paid "$20k" for and offers it. The guy is young and impulsive and living on the base so his expenses are low, so he goes for it. Let's hope the car wasn't worth more than about $6k for the current owner's sake. Then he pulls up some Youtube footage of jets and reads about it a little on the forums, and realizes that it's going to take time and effort to gain the skills to fly this thing. But he's young and impulsive though, so that ain't gonna happen. So he looks for the simplest way to get his money back out of it, and Google turns up RCU, RCG, and a few others. There are probably ads on some other sites too with the same conversations going on there as there are here. He describes it based on what the seller told him and 20 minutes of research could turn up and hopes for the best. To my mind, this would be a safe face to face deal assuming he's ok with the buyer checking with the local police to be sure there isn't a report about a stolen RC jet around, and assuming that a very thorough inspection doesn't turn up any problems. I'd want to see the thing fly before buying it personally, but that wouldn't be an option with this guy.

RE: questionable ad
 

Wow! almost 2 full pages of posts over an ad for a jet?Everything from accusing the poor guy of being a scam artist to <font size="3" face="Times New Roman">criticizing him for his spelling? Sad, really sad, that this is all there is to do on here. I'm with Eric on this one; give the guy a break and if your interested in buying it then call the guy and ask ? and go see it in person. If not, then let it go. The poor guy got in over his head and now realizes he made a mistake and the AD police come out in force, and to make it worse the poor guy is a soldier fighting to save your right to criticize him. http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/js/f.../msn/frown.gifIt only took a PM and a phone call to find out that info. Very SAD indeed!</font>

RE: questionable ad
 

Larry , I hope to leave no later than 7 am. Where are you staying?
Steve

RE: questionable ad
 

Best Western in Peach Tree City. Leaving 5:00 AM. Guess I'll be just ahead of you. That is,,,until Jacqui has to make one of her MANY pee stops!!! LOLOLOL

RE: questionable ad
 

+1

RE: questionable ad
 

i saw this ad a few days ago and i deemed it "too good to be true"

RE: questionable ad
 

My personal opinion, is that, when you see such adds and two things are blaring at you, example he (or she) just joined RCU, and with such a price difference that plane could very well have been stolen. Move on, it is better to ignor that add. There is a reason I do not store my planes in my garage, which is probably where this plane was taken from, sounds harsh, but you never know.

RE: questionable ad
 

Raptureboy, you are a good man!

RE: questionable ad
 

I had a great conversation with Brandonn and he seems to be a very nice guy. He's a crew chief in one of the helo squadrons on Bragg. I'll be taking a look at his jet this evening when I get back into town. He actually has it at a local hobby shop and he'll be meeting me there. He asked me to go through it and make sure everything is there in which I agreed. He told me the name of the guy he got it from and I happen to know the guy. I'll leave it up to him as to whether he wants to share that info as he's a bit discouraged by the amount of negative phone calls he's received. I informed him that although he may have received those type calls, he has to stay positive because the rc hobby community consists of a great group of people who share an interest in the same hobby. I also told him that he has to understand that perspective buyers want to know the complete ins and outs of a particular item when it comes to purchasing anything online. I hope this helps.
Steve

RE: questionable ad
 

Good to see he is legit ;)

RE: questionable ad
 

Looks like a possible "foot in mouth" scenario. Lol

RE: questionable ad
 

Well, I went by and saw the f-18 this evening. It is indeed a Skymaster/ Extreme Jets F-18. Some of the things I noticed upon inspecting it is that it is missing the retract and brake valves. It's also missing the steering servo. The brake and retract lines have to be routed and hooked up once the valves are acquired ofcourse. Provisions for mounting the pipe have to be made although the pipe is in the airplane. The pipe looks brand new. It does have kevlar tanks as he described in his ad. The stabilizer servos appear to be the older style 1/4 scale servos that we use to use back in the day. Not sure of the brand but they are large. Although it's an ARF, the black paint on the vertical stabs are not smooth as I would expect. They seem to have that orange peel effect. Overall, as I explained to Brandonn, the airplane needs quite a bit of work before it's flight worthy.
As far as the engine is concerned, It is not in the airplane but it is a Rhino. The ECU is a bit different in markings when compared to my JC Rabbit ECU. His ECU has Artes on it. I think it's one of the older engines. I'm not an expert when it comes to JC engines as the Rabbit is the only JC engine I own. Nevertheless, the engine doesn't look brand new in my opinion because of the discoloration around the tail cone. I have several turbines and none of them looked that way when they were new. I don't think it has a lot of hours on it but it's definitely not brand new. The HDT and one solenoid is missing. Brandonn said he will contact the person he got it from to see if he has the missing items. Hope this helps,
Steve

RE: questionable ad
 

Steve,

Thanks for posting that information.....hope the seller didn't get "taken to the cleaners" by the original owner, as it sounds like the jet is far from what one might have expected.

RE: questionable ad
 

Thanks, but not really. Ijust really dislike it when for no good reason people automatically assume the worst about someone. As we have seen the OP really is a good guy just trying to turn around a bad situation, and he has been very gracious to some who are less so. Maybe a few apologies would be in order.

RE: questionable ad
 

I agree,
" No good deed goes unpunished "

Steve,
Thanks for your efforts .

Brandonn ,
Good luck selling your stuff.

RE: questionable ad
 

Absolutly dead on!

RE: questionable ad
 

Apologies are absolutely in order!! The original AD was clearly not questionable!!
quote
"new f-18 by sky master
all high end stuff installed
comes with jet century rhino jet motor with remote start
3 Kevlar fuel tanks
high end re-track
air brakes ect way to much to list
all this needs to fly is your reciver-fuel-batterys-and bravery
turbine engin has only been bench tested and comes with warranty
over 20k invested in this jet
looking for a reasonable offer 7200 obo can throw in other aircrafts with it"
quote

New, high end, new motor, ready to fly, etc, 20K invested, etc
the OP called it a questionable ad and it absolutely was.

RE: questionable ad
 

I think part of the problem with people thinking this is a Lynch Mob formed to hang the guy is they are now seeing his revised ad and didn't see the first ad which was questionable at best. As I mentioned in my previous post, there is a right way and a wrong way to list something for sale, in this case, the original ad was not done well and left it open to much hesitation. The revised second ad is much better, now with some verification on the aircraft from a well known member on RCU the validity is there. I don't feel this thread was in the wrong.

RE: questionable ad
 

It wasnt in the wrong but now theres a lynch mob to hang the guys who remarked the ad was questionable.
The thread was very beneficial and wasnt done in a derogatory way. It helped everyone in the end.
Scott

RE: questionable ad
 

You hit the nail on the head Scott......

RE: questionable ad
 

X2 ... It's good that we look out for each other.