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-   -   Chinese Jets (https://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/rc-jets-120/9238019-chinese-jets.html)

k12rc 11-08-2009 07:37 PM

RE: Chinese Jets
 
I love to build I think its half the fun but how can any one expect someone who has never built any to look at an arf and know whether its safe to fly or not

BobH 11-08-2009 07:47 PM

RE: Chinese Jets
 
If your not paying for some decent engineering etc. then exactly what are you paying for.. looks? performance? ease of assembly? if the plane falls apart in the air.. the others don't matter much..

And while its true that the larger the population of a particular product the greater the over all failures can be.. but the incidence of failure per say 100 is what's important.. lets not discount that.

timrob 11-08-2009 08:25 PM

RE: Chinese Jets
 


ORIGINAL: LGM Graphix

I have been flying for many years, and now turbine jets for 10 years. In that time I have flown many manufactures airplanes, and I have seen many failures from ALL manufactures.
Some of the ones I remember specifically from RCU over the years:

Multiple Hotspots where the fuse blew apart
Multiple Eurosports where the rear hatches blew off and the fuse came apart
A BVM Super Bandit where the wing spar failed
BVM Kingcat boom failures (1st generation, lead to carbon plates glued on the outside)
Skymaster wing delaminations
A Yellow Aircraft F18 twin wing failure
Boomerang explosions

etc etc etc..........

Looking at the above list, it is certainly not the chinese jets being singled out. Every manufacture has problems. While FEJ's seem to be having more than their share lately, they are also selling huge numbers of jets, AND!!!!!!!!!!
I think this is something very important to consider....

I know they all have their problems, and all manufacturers have crashes, but I also know which one is more likely to have a mid air mishap out of a BVM with it's amazing wing structure, or a crap FEJ with it's crap balsa wing spar housing (hint, it's not the BVM).

Tim


invertmast 11-08-2009 09:02 PM

RE: Chinese Jets
 


ORIGINAL: LGM Graphix

.......A Yellow Aircraft F18 twin wing failure.....


If this is the one i think your talking about.. It actually wasn't a wing failure. it was a forward wing attachment bulkhead that failed due to being built incorrectly. So ya can't claim that as the manufacturer's fault, especially since they do not (or atleast did not) market that airframe as a "turbine ready" airplane.

KC36330 11-08-2009 09:07 PM

RE: Chinese Jets
 

ORIGINAL: LGM Graphix


To be honest I would bet that it's more than 60% these days that have never built a kit, mostly ARF assemblers these days, to bad really, building is half the fun!

I'd be willing to bet that 60% of the fliers out there these days (all fliers not just jets) can't even put an ARF together, i make all my hobby cash off putting planes together for others, ARFs have been the majority of my business the last 5-6 yrs. i've even got one guy who buys only RTF stuff and then pays me 50 bucks a pop to program his radio for it and then if he needs anything changed after i do the maiden he asks me to do that too, he can't even adjust the expo on his TX. with that said, I've seen some pretty good fliers who the closest thing to building they've ever done was bolting the wings on a completed aircraft.


LGM Graphix 11-08-2009 09:21 PM

RE: Chinese Jets
 


ORIGINAL: invertmast



ORIGINAL: LGM Graphix

.......A Yellow Aircraft F18 twin wing failure.....


If this is the one i think your talking about.. It actually wasn't a wing failure. it was a forward wing attachment bulkhead that failed due to being built incorrectly. So ya can't claim that as the manufacturer's fault, especially since they do not (or atleast did not) market that airframe as a ''turbine ready'' airplane.

I think you are correct, and I should have stated clearer as well that it was a kit designed for ducted fan, unfortunately, on a forum it will be seen as a structural failure. For what it's worth, I don't really claim that any of the failures I've seen are manufactures fault, there are to many outside circumstances that we as readers on a forum will never know about.
My only real point was that there are thousands of successful flights happening out there, and that every manufacture can have something fail. Be it from structural failure, builder error, etc, but to not fly because you are concerned about what might happen makes the hobby pretty unfullfilling. The time needs to be taken to inspect as best as possible and then just enjoy the airplane knowing that they all have expiration dates sometime.

invertmast 11-08-2009 09:36 PM

RE: Chinese Jets
 


ORIGINAL: LGM Graphix



ORIGINAL: invertmast



ORIGINAL: LGM Graphix

.......A Yellow Aircraft F18 twin wing failure.....


If this is the one i think your talking about.. It actually wasn't a wing failure. it was a forward wing attachment bulkhead that failed due to being built incorrectly. So ya can't claim that as the manufacturer's fault, especially since they do not (or atleast did not) market that airframe as a ''turbine ready'' airplane.

I think you are correct, and I should have stated clearer as well that it was a kit designed for ducted fan, unfortunately, on a forum it will be seen as a structural failure. For what it's worth, I don't really claim that any of the failures I've seen are manufactures fault, there are to many outside circumstances that we as readers on a forum will never know about.
My only real point was that there are thousands of successful flights happening out there, and that every manufacture can have something fail. Be it from structural failure, builder error, etc, but to not fly because you are concerned about what might happen makes the hobby pretty unfullfilling. The time needs to be taken to inspect as best as possible and then just enjoy the airplane knowing that they all have expiration dates sometime.
I understand and agree... I just wanted to make sure the "story" was accurate for those who might read this and open up a whole nother can of worms about YA F-18's having structural problems...

SCALECRAFT 11-08-2009 10:03 PM

RE: Chinese Jets
 


ORIGINAL: k12rc

I know what you saying and Iam not bashing arfs but I would say probably 60% of people flying have never built anything and probably could not tell which way to run grain to get the strength where its needed
This statement in it self sheds a lot of light on why there are so many arfs that fail. I have noticed some Jet guys and so many warbird guys get arfs and fail to "read" the construction and hardware components of the model.

I am not saying that I can see every problem in an arf. The guys that have fabricated models of wood or composite, know what and where to look for weakness or improvement.

For instance, an all composite model, gel coated, pre primed or painted already, hides the layup and structural configuration of the airframe.

To me, a raw un painted see- thru glass kit is more impressive and reveals the construction benefits and flaws.

Steve

k12rc 11-08-2009 11:48 PM

RE: Chinese Jets
 
what construction man most are a few pics down loaded on line

Shaun Evans 11-09-2009 12:32 AM

RE: Chinese Jets
 
Hi,

I think the "You get what you pay for" addage is an extreme oversimplification in this case. If a company is selling a turbine ARF, they're implying that it can be used for the purpose it's sold. Do we really expect people to cut an ARF wing open? The buyer has a reasonable expectation that the goods are suitable for the purpose they're sold for, right? So, in some cases, the customer DID NOT get what he paid for. Of course we can't expect JMP quality products for a FEJ pricetag, but that's not what we're talking about.

What if that crashed F-15 wing had a spar box made of marshmellows? Would anyone be playing the 'buy cheap, buy twice' card? Since the answer is "No", I ask......what's the difference? Wrong-grain balsa or cotton balls, the thing was totally inadequate for what they sold it for. Thing is, it's not just about peoples' money, either.

timrob 11-09-2009 01:34 AM

RE: Chinese Jets
 


ORIGINAL: YellowAircraft

Hi,

I think the "You get what you pay for" addage is an extreme oversimplification in this case. If a company is selling a turbine ARF, they're implying that it can be used for the purpose it's sold.
In Australia, the Trade Practices Act says that there is an expectation that the goods are of "reasonable quality" that they do the purpose they are intended for. A lawyer on a better business site said that even if the warranty has expired (say it is month 13 of a 12 month warranty), you are still covered if say "a wing falls off a plane becasue a blasa spar box fails". Good luck getting this to be enforced for Chinese companies though.

Tim



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