RE: Ultra Rc Evolution
 

This is an email I just sent them.
I was nice and respectful. Now let's see if I get a response.
Chris


Hi,
I don't know if you will respond to this but I'll give you a try.
I purchased an evolution and was wondering if parts are available or not.
Obviously as I have seen you in the forum, you know we have issues with the kit. I have already fixed quite a bit and I am willing to fix the rest if I can get a few parts.
Please email with at least an answer to if parts are or will be available at some point.

This plane had some great ideas but is just lacking in the build somewhere. I'm sure you can get the issues straightened out and it will make a good kit.
Thanks,
Chris

RE: Ultra Rc Evolution
 

Has anyone flew the Evolution yet? I put one together for a buddy who bought one and went with stock gear(?) after having some problems getting the engine to run finally got it on the runway and as he was taxiing it out to set up for take off the right gear got a bit wobbly and shaky but finally got it in the air. Only in air a minute or so and engine quit (ran out of fuel, too much fiddling with it on the ground) and came in for a deadstick landing. He settled it in quite nicely but as it was rolling on runway the right side gear twisted around and luckily didn't collapse but it did break the carbon rod right about the place where it exits the fuse. Now working on putting some regular landing gear on it. His plane seems to be pretty straight and only needed a little bit of up trim in the time it was in the air.
I also would like to know if a replacement canopy is available as the dang AZ heat kinda warped it. And also gonna have to do some repair to canopy as one of the front tabs broke off.

Is Jarvis going to be in Hemet this weekend?

RE: Ultra Rc Evolution
 

Hi Flyjohn,

What landing gear do you think will fit in this plane?

I have just received the replacement plane without damage, and have been working on putting the plane together. The landing gear is one area I am also thinking about making some improvements, so suggestion is greatly welcome.

TIA,
Kevin

RE: Ultra Rc Evolution
 

I'd go with the bolly electric long gear. This plane is setup for long gear.

I'm sure Jarvis will be at Hemet. It's in his backyard!!

I unfortunately won't make it. I really wanted to but I have to work this weekend.

Chris

RE: Ultra Rc Evolution
 

He had some carbon fiber gear from another plane he had crashed. Only thing it had on it was F3A, they are approx 7 inches tall from axle to mounting point, Definitely going to be a lot closer to the ground but looks like it will still have enough ground clearance for a 17" prop. so anything at least that tall unless you're using a bigger prop.
'
'

RE: Ultra Rc Evolution
 

I will check into the Bolly gear, and try to figure out some ways to install the landing gear block in there. Initial impression is to cut the landing gear in half and bolt them on either side of the pipe tunnel.

RE: Ultra Rc Evolution
 

Has anyone tried a Hacker A60 M series in the Evolution yet?? If so how many amps are you drawing??
The people using the axi 5330/18; how much thrust are you producing and how many amps??

Team3d

RE: Ultra Rc Evolution
 

yea, when I was having trouble contacting Brian, regarding my damaged planes and getting my credit card refunded - it was pi**ing me off a bit to see ultra-rc viewing the thread and not getting any reponse from my voice and email messages. I guess at this point the plane is becoming a total bummer.

and it took almost 4 weeks to get my refund as well,

there always seems to be a lot of hype when a new arf planes comes out, the funning thing is we pilots seem to create this hype, I guess it's because we all want the new and best toys - first... then things pan out not so well -

it does really seem like this plane has a major list of problems - the two damaged kits I had seemed okay, but of course I never started building or really looking at things. I was concerned right off about the landing gear and strength of the fuse - that light plywood construction seems way to easy to damage...


good luck to you guys....

RE: Ultra Rc Evolution
 

You can not have a party in my backyard, and not invist me !!!!!
See you guy's Saturday morning. The Temp, in Hemet today 106 degree's
Chris, sorry you have to work, so are any of those Northern Cal guy's coming down.
We were out flying at hemet this past weekend nice flying site.

Jarvis

RE: Ultra Rc Evolution
 

Well,
I'm impressed. I have a response within 24 hours. Here it is..

Chris,

I am sorry for my late reply. We are currently moving our office location and Brian is in Europe until Thursday. Is it possible you can wait until he returns to address these issues? If not, please contact me at 609-714-0040 between 10am and 4pm tomorrow and I will do my best to help you. Again, I am sorry for the delay.

Ultra-RC
Jim Eble


Chris

RE: Ultra Rc Evolution
 

I got my E-Evolution a couple of weeks ago. I decided I would recover with a different scheme. I tore all the covering off and found the design of the plane is impressive. What is not impressive is what I found inside! Lots of gaps between critical parts with no glue. I had one wing tube that fit perfectly and one that allows the wing to wag up and down a 1/4" at the tip. Not a good thing on a pattern plane. My stab tube will not go in the stabs. When I tried to put it in the fuse, I pulled out the sheath in the fuse. I did contact Brian; took a week and a second email to get a response and I must say he was willing to help. I just feel there are to many quality issues with the plane. Its a shame. It a potenially nice plane. It will become a winter project. I already put a couple bottles of CA in it to make sure it wouldn't come apart in the air.

Jeff

RE: Ultra Rc Evolution
 

Jeff,
What are you doing about the wings?
Have you looked down the back edge of the aileron cutouts?
All four of my wings were built on a banana.

Just curious if you are going to break the glue joints apart and reglue them on a straight table.
Chris

RE: Ultra Rc Evolution
 

Question here from an ARF newbie. I have never bought an ARF, have no experience with them, always rolled my own from kits, plans or my own drawings. So this is being asked as a serious question, not a slag of ARF's or anything smart-assed. And it's not just about pattern planes, but ARF's in general.

At what point in pulling covering off, re-gluing joints, breaking wings apart to put them back together straight (!!), etc., do you say this product is DEFECTIVE and I want my money back? How are the various ARF suppliers to deal with if you are not satisfied with the quality of the product? If I bought any other major item and it had the quality issues I hear about on ARF's, it would go back to the seller and I would find a new one. So why do people seem to be so willing to fix all of these issues at their own time/cost/expense/effort when I think they should be handled by the supplier who sold the model to you?


Mark

RE: Ultra Rc Evolution
 

No offense taken here.
To start off, there are almost no pattern arfs on the market in this price range. Matter of fact, there are hardly any kits that you can build in this price range. Shoot, the one''s there are, you can't get.
2M pattern kits or arfs are a rare thing unless you are willing to pay 2500 or more for the airframe.
So therefore I would fix the ones I have and just be upset with the company.
Here's another example for you though.
I have many arfs. Here's a list of a few.
Dave Patrick Extra. Straight, good quality kit! $429
Hanger 9 Cap 232 1.40 size. Wing was warped. Pulled covering off bottom and glued the joints together properly and straight. Still decent quality. I think it was $350.
Hanger 9 Edge 540. Straight, good quality. Like $350.
Hanger 9 Extra 330L 33%. Straight, big, and great quality. I think it was like $750.
These IMAC style planes are a dime a dozen. They can be found at any LHS generally.

Now I have this Evolution. It's a rare thing to find a 2m pattern ship for this price. Yes it has it's issues. But you can't find this type of plane anywhere. So I'll fix it as I need another airframe in the air as I have lost 3 this year.
I am going to call ultra rc here shortly as that's what I was told to do. I'll see if I get the machine or a person.
Chris

RE: Ultra Rc Evolution
 

Got the machine. I will try a few more times before they close.
Chris

RE: Ultra Rc Evolution
 

So, despite the issues you would rather have the plane, warts and all, than nothing. I can understand that, there are times that you have no good choices and have to pick the least unpleasant solution.

In the case of the others, when is enough enough? I would be pretty quick to return a plane that had much wrong with it, but that doesn't seem like the norm from what I have seen and heard. There are so many threads on RCU that detail major re-work to an ARF that I would simply not accept if it was my plane and had spent my money on it. Does anybody return ARF's because of quality issues?


Mark

RE: Ultra Rc Evolution
 

Well, to return something you must be able to get ahold of them right?
Doesn't appear to happen with ultra-rc yet.. Well accept for email.

RE: Ultra Rc Evolution
 

Oh, and here's the deal. I didn't know all this stuff was wrong until I built it. I found more and more as I went along. Already trashed the box's to both of the Evolutions.
Like I just found out about the weak firewall. No way to tell that out of the box. My Axi would rip the firewall off this plane. Ask Scott Covey, he ripped the nose off of their other plane with his axi, the Icepoint. LOL And that appears to be a stronger plane.
(I had to say it Scott, LOL)

Look, I'm not trying to be ungreatful or something. I appreciate the amount of work that's put into this plane. But I do understand what you are saying. Most people (I would assume, I haven't done a study on it) don't have the time to build a complete plane so they just fix what they can I guess.

RE: Ultra Rc Evolution
 

I guess that was part of my question, too. When you find this stuff as you are going along (the firewall and landing gear plates must be the 2 biggest complaints I see come up), can you call the dealer and say you want to return it? I would be very unhappy if you couldn't take a partly built plane back after you discovered it was a piece of c@%p.


Mark

RE: Ultra Rc Evolution
 

patternflyer1 are the gear different lengths in the gas and electric version I have the electric and am cutting off 1 1/2 inchs and it will still be longer then neccesary for 22x12. My plane is straight for stab and wings. Wing tubes fit other than a little tight(not a problem). Firewall I will strengthen a little and I will add a former in the center of canopy to support the side of canopy. I have the Giles and put a 3/16 carbon tube in gear with wire(7/64 or.110) inside of the 3/16 tube, both are free not glued. Will use JR 368(would have liked single with push rods.) on elevator. 9411 on ailerons and 8411 on rudder. There is a lot of good in this ARF. It seems Brian is very busy with production and control. If you could put yourself in his shoes and try to keep all in control over seas, I think he is addressing the issues that have been brought up. Some of the 1500 dollar kits and 2500 dollar arf have issues too like tails breaking of etc. The reason we have this issue is that 40 or 50 pattern leaders have there heads stuck in the sand on the weight issue(keep it for FAI and raise it a lb or lb and 1/2 for other classes). You could imagine the good pattern arfs we could have if the manufacturers had another Lb. to work with. Maybe 2 oz more glue a stronger firewall and stouter gear. NO FAI guy is going to buy a arf like this unless all production issues are taken care of. If they ever changed their minds It would take 3 years to change the rules, I quess they still live with the pony express. Yes I have read ALL the stupid reasons for not raising it. No reason on earth it could not be done and in effect next spring. Sorry about the weight rant.

RE: Ultra Rc Evolution
 

Unfortunately, the sad truth is that there are not many options for those looking for competitive pattern planes right now. At least for those of us who don't want to build a basic kit nor spend $3000 for a top notch ARF. The "value priced" buyer has to live with the less than perfect stuff or do what? There are no options. Send it back, yes that would be justified and now you have nothing at all. There is obviously a demand for these planes but the manufacturers are familiar with building tons of sport and sport scale planes, not planes which must be built with the precision that a competitive plane requires. I'm sure everyone who bought one of these would pay the extra $50 to have the plane built right and to be able to order it with confidence that it will arrive "right" and not require re-engineering and lots of time fixing it to make it right.

RE: Ultra Rc Evolution
 

No, the gear are the same lengths. I'm going to leave them full length on the electric but probably will cut them down a little on the glow version. But I'm not building the glow version yet. Are you sure yours is straight? Have you sighted the back of the wings? Wings to stab? Have you put your canopy in the heat yet? Have you mounted your elevator servos and figured out that the elevators are like a limp noodle. Yeah, they flex super easy.
As for your comment on Brian. That's all fine. Yes I can give him some space. I was told to call yesterday, I called today. No answer, no call back. Jim from ultra emailed me and told me when to call. I'm almost positive I won't get a return phone call. But, I'll give them a chance. Jarvis called them and they didn't call him back. Not sure if they have recently though.
Your comments on the 1500 and 2500 dollar kits with issues, well the impact is the one where the tails broke off. They have since been reinforced in design. 2500?? Don't know which you're referring to with that. The E angels shadow is one of the best quality kit's out for what 2300? I understand I didn't pay that for this kit.
Weight issues? Well deal with it. Rules are rules. Plain and simple. Yeah, I wish we could be 12 or 13 pounds, but we can't. Look around. Do you see anybody trying to build a heavy plane? Most people shoot for light regardless of the weight limit. It won't change if they raise the limit. You'll just see ballast systems put into place for windy days.
As for this plane, I will say that if it was built right I think it will do good. But it's going to require alot. And I'm going to do it. Not saying I'm not, or that I want my money back. Just informing people with this thread about this plane. Go back to the beginning, I was happy before I started building. I'm sure when I get it all fixed and fly it I'll be happy again.
It's just a toy plane after all, I'm not gonna let it ruin my mood!!

Chris

RE: Ultra Rc Evolution
 

Have you tried finding a basic kit? I have. It's almost impossible over here. I'll build a couple black magics this winter. Then I know I have a great plane, that's straight.

It's amazing that the distributers that we do have here don't have any kits. Someone is losing money somewhere. Why hasn't anyone figured this out?
C

RE: Ultra Rc Evolution
 

My wings are fine. The covering they used was not like Ultracote; it sucked.
I was disappointed in the quality for sure. I am not spending $2-3000 on a pattern plane.
I flew pattern back in the 70'-80's. I now fly pattern planes for fun. They are the best flying planes you can fly. I am getting on a nostalgia kick anyways. Want to build a Troublemaker EXT for my Jett Fire 90 and have some real old time fun.

Jeff

RE: Ultra Rc Evolution
 

The covering is kinda strange I agree. I would like to rip it off but I've built three pattern kits this year and recovered a friends focus for him. I'm tired of MONOKOTE and it's issues!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

C