What happened to CAI?
 

I havent heard a single thing from these guys in months. Has anyone?
Scott

What happened to CAI?
 

I don't think they are selling airplane anymore.

Eddie Weeks

CAI
 

Last I heard from people they closed their doors.

Sung

CAI
 

I was told by someone who knows, they couldn't get the F-100 to stop crashing. I think the guy told me Scotty crashed like 4 of them......:eek:! They ended up closing up shop. Just goes to show you shouldn't open up a business on the premise of putting another out of business :rolleyes:

Scott

CAI Closed
 

I agree, that's a bad premise to start a business, especially when you add a mix of a lot of promises and big talk/no action.

A checked and their website is still up, has anyone called them? I know before someone posted that they weren't answering the phone.

Joe

cai
 

I noticed that they are or were supporting a turbine manufacturing in europe. The December Jet magazine had an article about the turbines. Wonder what the status of that is?
Scott

What happened to CAI?
 

It's an Australian Turbine maker they support. I believe they are called Aeronautic and the turbine they produce is the Orion.

Chris

CAI website
 

I just tried it and it no longer comes up. If anyone has any spare parts for their Panther, I would be interested. I just got mine built and finished for me, but have not flown it yet. I wouldn't mind having some parts for it.

Sung

What happened to CAI?
 

I just tried the web site and it came up fine for me. See http://www.crowaviation.com/

CAI website
 

My mistake, I must have punched the wrong keys.

Sung

"Orion turbine"
 

CAI has been talking about their "Orion turbine" for 4 years now. It weighs 4.6 pounds, way too much for today's 28 Lb turbines. I've yet to see one. I believe it cost around 5K.
Where's their reps, they could probably enlighten us?

CAI Reps
 

Maybe they are hanging out with RAM's ex reps?

What happened to CAI?
 

You guys might want to check their website one more time. All is explained there.

cai is out of business
 

this is to all of you who don't want to go to the site. This is copied directly from their site as I am writing this post.

January 17, 2002
2001 was a challenging year for all of us. The events of September 11th left us with a deep sense of loss. For a long time I found myself unable to express my grief. While still trying to come to terms with our national tragedy, I was hit by another gut wrenching blow. My wife Lauren needed brain surgery. I retreated from work to focus on helping my family make it through this challenging time. As we pulled together as a family around Lauren it reminded me that this is what was important in life. Love your family and make yourself and your loved ones as happy as possible.

I have renewed an old vow to apply this philosophy to all aspects of my life. My family and I spend much more time together now, and we have undertaken activities that make us all happy. As an example, we are avid hockey fans. I have played since childhood and my son Alex is an up-and-coming young hockey player. For this reason, as well obviously as business reasons, we decided to purchase an ECHL hockey team, the Baton Rouge Kingfish. We are all enjoying our involvement with the team immensely.

Unfortunately our pursuit of happiness in our lives has led us to decide to close Crow Aviation’s modeling division. This decision will free up much needed time in Lauren’s and my schedules and will remove a great deal of stress from our lives. CAI started as a way for me to share my love of jet modeling with fellow modelers. I honestly enjoyed meeting many of the great people on the jet circuit, and I am proud that we introduced some innovative products to the jet world. However this enjoyment and my sense of accomplishment have been destroyed by the rumor mongers, unscrupulous modelers, closed minds and petty jealousies I have encountered along the way. Needless to say these negative forces have stolen the fun from this venture and brought unnecessary stress into my life. Couple this stress with the fact that the general jet modeling community has significantly reduced its spending on high end model kits, and the decision I had to make was very clear. CAI will no longer produce jet models.

To those of you who have become friends and/or customers, thank you. I have enjoyed your company and appreciated your business. We will stay in touch. If you need spare parts or accessories please call us at 225-214-1090. If you don’t get a person on the phone, please leave a message and we will get back to you. Please do not try to contact us via e-mail since it has been disconnected as of today. To everyone in the jet modeling community, I wish you the best of luck and continued enjoyment of this hobby. As a parting note I urge you to remember that the power of rumor is significant. Resist the urge to relay information when you are not positive about the facts. See you on the circuit.

Sincerely,

Scotty Bolduc

PLEASE NOTE:

ACCESSORIES AND SPARE PARTS:
Spare parts will continue to be available as long as supplies last, which should be quite a while given our current inventory. We also have a large stock of accessories that will still be available for sale. You can still access our catalog on-line in PDF format as well as a list of some of the newer accessories at the following link:

http://www.crowaviation.com/accessoriesset.html

ASSET PURCHASE:
If anyone is interested in purchasing a portion or all of the assets of Crow Aviation’s modeling division (tooling, molds, raw materials, etc.) please call or contact me via fax at 225-214-1099. The assets represent a significant capital outlay on my part of several hundred thousand dollars. I will only consider and respond to serious offers.

What happened to CAI?
 

HOLY CRAP! That's bad news as competition is always a good thing. All the best to Scotty.

What happened to CAI?
 

What a bummer. They were really nice models. I have seen several of the Panthers and Raptors and Razors fly, and they were really nice. I know at least two of the Huns crashed, but hey, that's the price of progress. I did see the prototype up close, and it was a beautiful model. I do think they could have done more testing on that one before offering it for sale. I think it's not such a great idea to offer a $7000 kit that has not been extensively flight tested. Just my opinion.
I do wish that so many BVM people had not slammed this company so badly on the net. It was really pretty tasteless, and it was pretty obvious that there were a lot of people that could not beleive that Scotty Bolduc had the temerity to "challenge" BVM. I think it was apples and oranges, not competition. It was pretty sickening to see all the mud slung at this company...they really deserved a better welcome.

What happened to CAI?
 

Easytiger,

C'mon now...... CAI did it's share of bashing as well. I remember hearing the comment several times from the CAI camp about putting BVM out of the jet business. Also it was not just the F-100 that had problems......if you want come down to Mississippi and I will show you a pile of runway lights that the CAI team took out at our event 2 years ago with their Raptors. And was that not a CAI panther that folded up mid air and crashed into that condo down at Top Gun last year?

It is a shame to see another modelling venture fold up but instead of coming out with a company that is going to be bigger, better, faster, stronger, why not just try to prove that your models are well built and a viable entitiy without trying to destroy your competition. It is the way of the buisness world only the strong survive. They had some nice planes but they were also heavy and not as throughly tested before they hit the market.

David
 

I was'nt going to say anything either....but I heard Scotty say personally that his aim was to put BV out of business. I say he reaped what he sowed.

Scott

CAI Whitewash
 

I checked the CAI website as soon as I read the first post in this thread, and the original graphics were there. I can't help but to think this was an afterthought to the modelers that must have called there yesterday (including myself), as it is dated Jan 17.

We all know that BVM runs an active 'trashing' program, but if the CAI stuff would have performed better, 'trashing' them wouldn't have had any effect.

CAI did come out with the 'put BVM out of business' attitude, but then matched them move for move, dollar for dollar. That's the wrong way to do it.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm always sceptical when some guy I never heard of (Scotty Bolduc) comes along with (what he claims) are millions of dollars, and makes all of these promises.

I don't know how many times I heard him say "I'm in it for the long run".

As far as Scotty's comments on Rumors, it was a Rumor that they were out of business until yesterdays update to his site, but it was obviously true


Joe

CAI Parts
 

Glennis Aircraft will offer the wheel/brake systems directly that were included in all CAI kits, although their listing may drop from the website/pricelist in the future.

I'm sorry to see CAI go in a way, but on the other hand have to agree with all of the posts to date.

Dennis Rastetter
Glennis Aircraft

No Whitewash Here
 

I have been watching the thread with interest since I am the one who posted the notice on the CAI web site regarding CAI no longer manufacturing model jets.

There are some good observations in this thread and a lot of bull.

I suspect I will not respond to many of the comments made here since it's not my place to defend CAI, but I will try to chime in when I know something to be innacurate.

On that note, in an attempt to put an end to at least one inaccurate speculation, the notice on the web site from Scotty was not an afterthought. It was written a few weeks ago, but Scotty did not finalize it until a few days ago. I was delayed in posting it by some other business. The fact that it ended up coming out while this thread was ongoing was coincidental, but I thought very appropriate.

One other thing, yeah rumors sometimes turn out to be true; but often they don't. It's the ones that don't that do harm. Let's hope, for example, that the rumors of RAM's demise have been greatly exaggerated for all our sakes.

Those of you who know me also know that I call it like it is. My statements are true for those of you willing to believe.

Antony Parchment
CAI webmaster

What happened to CAI?
 

David, can't argue with anything you said, really. No doubt they could and should have tested their stuff better.
Only one thing, though...the folded wing on the Panther was a simple case of pilot error...the wing was not locked properly. The mechanism did not fail. Saw the wreckage with mine own two eyes. Nice airplane, that Panther.

What happened to CAI?
 

I think it was JoeJet that said "We all know that BVM runs an active 'trashing' program, but if the CAI stuff would have performed better, 'trashing' them wouldn't have had any effect." Now hold on just a minute here! I don't know that. In fact, I doubt very seriously that Bob Violet Models actually has a planned and organized intentional "trashing" program. What would he need that for, we all know BVM is the best of rhe best. I don't want to be interpreted as supporting BVM or CAI. I have bought some small amounts from each (I have never owned a kit from either, just small parts, hatch latches, Al fuel caps, etc.) and have been very satisfied. But if I am wrong and there is a trashing program, lets here the proof, but don't go starting another rumor.

What happened to CAI?
 

Its too bad to see anyone fold up. However there were some real quality and support issues. I had one of the Panthers. It came short of parts. The layup was poor with the gel coat badly flaking. CAI acknowledged that they had a mould pressure problem but did not offer to do anything about it. The internal wing fuse structure needed at CAI's recommendation to have extensive carbon reinforcement. The plane flew well, but the amount of work that was actually necessary to build and finish was far in excess of what they advertised. This was due to parts fit and poor basic finish quality.When completed the plane looked great and flew well.
I saw the F9F go in at Top Gun, if you are familiar with the wing mechanism, I don't think it was pilot error, there were some serious design issues with that wing joint. CAI always tended to try to talk its way around these issues, it may have caught up with them.
Mike

What happened to CAI?
 

I will take the word of a Panther OWNER over what I saw, for sure. Remember that the model that crashed was built (and the wing problem explained to me) by Jess Harper, who was(I beleive) repping CAI at the time.
You actually own one of these models, and are much more equipped to talk about it than me.