Ok, my buddy bought and built a beautiful Seagull Extra 300 ARF. (amazing kit by the way, solid landing gear and fiberglass cowl thats fully painted) He gets it out and over a week or so buts on 10 or 15 flights. Then the worst happens. Theres that horrible flutter sound followed by a big whoopf as his new plane smucks the ground. Upon picking up the wreckage, another buddy noticed that the control horn on the elevator is broken. Its not come loose from the crash because the entire tail section was in good shape (thats all that was) but it broke at the base of the horn where it joins the flat part you mount on the control surface. It just wobbled back and forth, hanging by a thread. We took a look at the other control horns and they are quite "rubbery". Now, I have a Hobbico Extra 300 ARF, same size and the horns on mine are quite solid, almost Du-bro like and I'm quite sure they will be fine but this really has me thinking. What do people do with there new kits. We all know that we're going to toss a aerobatic plane around, so do you replace the control horns and other linkages or no? [sm=spinnyeyes.gif]

Do they look cheap? If so replace them. If you don't, make sure to check them each time you go to fly. Be careful about cheap hardware on kits and ARFs planes.

Ditto. I have built hundreds of kits, and several ARF's, and in the past few years I have seen a decline in the quality of hardware. Most of the bigger manufacturers use quality stuff (Sig, Great Planes, Goldberg just to name a few) but some of the smaller companies are really putting some crap in those hardware bags.

My advice:
If it looks like Nylon, use it.
If it looks like plastic, replace it.

Thanks for the replies. I have yet to build enough kits to make my own opinion and this helps. Seems that you really need to check this stuff out.

minn flyer has it right. I've used kit supplied horns for years and they have until the last 3 or 4 years been fine. But as stated above the cheaper kit makers have tried to maximize profits two ways. Cheaper hardware and repeat kit sales to replace the crashes caused by the cheap hardware. When I obliterate another model I always salvage the hardware if it is an older model and didn't cause the crash. My crashes are very seldom caused by a hardware failure except for the nut that holds the control sticks on the radio.