Better instructions for kits?

[Matt Watts]

I've been building a kit form Flair Junior 60, on reccomendation of one of my club members, and I loved flying his. This is going to be my third proper model (mushed my Magister, then built Simplex - very fun, but too small for club hurricanes, ripped half one side off).

Quite an exciting story, isn't it? Anyways, I've marvelled at how my building skills seem to have exploded on balsa, and I've been having great fun building it - I can see why people enjoy this so much!

However, there have been a fair few shortcomings on both the plan and the instructions, and yesterday I spent about an hour fuming at both of them concerning the undercart instillation, then got bored and got glued to playing on Halo for an hour or 2. This isn't the first time this has happened at various points in the build. I know I'm lazy sometimes, but I feel as if although almost anyone can fly it, Flair haven't  really made a big effort to produce a good set of instructions.

Am I in over my head (almost) when I took this up, or is it designed for those with a few models under their belt? ARTF trainer manuals are massive (generally), with big, clear instructions and lovely pictures/ diagrams, and they don't involve half the building (if any) of a kit! Only my determination and patience has seen me through all of this. Shouldn't kits have better or more detailed instructions/ plans?

[David Ashby - Moderator]

Ah Matt, my pet subject at the moment and one I've given some distributors a bit of stick over in the mag' recently (much to their suprise and annoyance I can tell you but in some cases it's a message that has hit home. One distributor told me that he had assumed his Li-Po balancer instructions were good ....until he read them himself )

You're absolutely spot on - instructions in particular.

Generally kits from the US always seem to have better words in a box as the market there is more competitive and generally the manufacturers seem to be more consumer/customer savvy.

Back here in the UK there is still an model industry attitude that prevails which assumes that the consumer will sort things out for himself or get by. It's simply down to poor business skills, a shocking disregard for the customer and a short term attitude. Distributors/retailers then wonder why they have lean patches or their business fails. What they don't seem to realise is that when they sell a product with poor instructions they are actually showing their contempt for their customers, simple as that.

David.

 

[Myron Beaumont]

Matt

Don't talk to me about FLAIR  At the risk of provoking legal action  All I can say is &^$%$£"!)(*+_(*) etc

GRUMPY (Like one or two others)

[Bob Cotsford]

I guess a lot of this has come about because older modellers tend to have come up through the ranks from chuckies and simple rubber powered models, through freeflight and control-line gathering skill at building and interpreting plans as they go along. Nowadays most people jump straight in the deep end with large and relatively complex radio-control power models. Many kits were designed back when people followed the apprenticeship outlined above, so instructions were often rudimentary, allowing the builder to use his/her favourite methods and sequences.

I've got to say I've not had a problem understanding the instructions on the two Flair models I've built, a Baronette and Sunrise.

As for American products, I can see two reasons why their instructions might be better.

1) McDonalds coffee cups hot drinks warnings.

If the supplier doesn't tell consumers not to stick their fingers into waste-disposal units, they stand a good chance of being sued. Common sense doesn't seem to be very common.

2) Much larger market forces make it economically viable to spend much more time and effort on packaging.

I remember building an American made sport model called a Peashooter - lovely sunday flyer, very aerobatic yet relaxing to fly. That came with an instruction book that even included covering and painting the model with various products. I'm sure some of this is down to mutual promotion between brands though.

[Steve biplane]

If any ARTF manufacturer wants to know what a set of assembly instructions should be like then take a look at the Black Horse 'Tutor 40' - they are very good.  So then I bought Black Horse's 'Travel Air' as a second model and those instructions are poor! 

[Matt Watts]

Thank you everyone for your replies, but I was wandering if there is a proper tradtional build kit with good instructions/ plans that should serve as a rolemodel for other manufacturers/ distributors?

[David Ashby - Moderator]

I've just built from a SIG kit and the instructions were pretty good, excellent at the construction steps perhaps less so for finishing and the final engineering steps although once the woodword was done I could work things out for myself.

David.  

[Mark Lubbock]

I have built a number of Flair kits (Atilla, Hannibal & Taube) & with the exception of the Taube (no instructions, just a detailed plan) have found them pretty good.

Hi Matt, best of luck with your build-I'm sure you can find any answers you need on this forum. What you have to realise, especially with an older design such as the Junior 60, they were never meant to be a raw beginners model.

I grew up with KK Gliders (Cub, Caprice) & rubber powered (Gypsy, Ajax & many of the Flying(?) Scale Series before moving on to Control Line & R/C very much later as radio became affordable & reliable. I therefore learned how to cut & join balsa, work from plans etc. over a number of years. The R/C trainer (Galaxy Escort) was probably my 40-50th model!

This just does not happen now, new modellers go straight into .40 powered 60"+ R/C models straight away, something I could only have dreamt about in the 70's as a schoolboy, when R/C was the preserve of rich adults!

Perhaps the manufacturers should relook at their older kits with view to this?

Anyway congratulations on getting this far with your Junior 60, glad you are enjoying the build-It's what true aeromodelling is all about!

[Gary Binnie]

Some instructions can be quite poor and even worse actually wrong!

I have built many Flair models, all with very good instructions. perhaps they were the older kits written by Dudley Pattison.

Chris Foss range: Again very clear and well written.

One idea I had recently was that it would be nice if some of the more complicated kits came with a CD-ROM or DVD packed with colour photos etc, many electrical gadgets nowadays use this method and don't supply paper instructions. The bonus is that you can enlarge the text (my eyes aren't what they were) and keep them on your hard disk so you don't lose them. Would cost a bit more perhaps but I would see it as a plus point when shopping for a model.

Quite a few kit manufacturers have their instructions in downloadable format which gives you the chance to have a look at what you might be getting in to, a good marketing move. Have a search.

I think this is a very relevant thread, the instructions can spoil an otherwise good kit.

Can't recommend Eastern European translations BTW, they can be a challenge and a laugh at the same time!

[The real Ron Truth]

Gary,

Now THAT is a good idea. Downloadable instructions with pics!

Seriously though, its a pain to build with bad instructions that gloss over some of the common tricky areas as if we all know what they were thinking. You should try building a Ben Buckle!!!!

 To some extent, poor instructions encourge me to take my time and think ahead a lot. Its a great way to learn the art of building and how to use materials.

 Im building a BB Great News  vintage and havent bother to follow the scribbled notes doted round the plans as after building a few, it becomes second nature.

 I have however come across fantastic instructions in Sig kits, balsa usa and a recent purchase for my old man, an irvine tutor 40. So much easier to follow than some of the half arsed friday afternoon scribbles from others.

The flair j60 is a nice kit but hs poor instructions as I can testify. Just bin them and follow good sound judgement. Whats puzzled you about the u.c set up?