ARTF quality

[Phil 9]

I have seen such an uncovered model at tower hobbies RTC (ready to cover)

 

RTC Model   the idea is you can use your own look

 

Maybe more RTC models will come to the market

 

saves time on building but you still end up with an unique model

[mal brewer]

  Kelvin, now that is a good idea.They could make a completely finished version, and also sell an uncovered airframe which would solve two problems. ( 1 ) we could check the build quality, and also make any modifications we wished, ( 2 ) we could finish the model in any desired colour scheme,we could even cover it with solartex or nylon and paint it. 10/10 for that one........Mal.

[001]

I have just found a series of photos in the bowels of my computer. (Un retouched).

They show faults on my Ripmax Xclaim that broke in two after a slightly heavy landing.

Apart from all the other faults this shows the interior of the top of the fuselage at one former.

  The 'longerons' were not one piece they were divided by the formers, the 'joints'  (note the two angled gaps) between the diagonal braces and the longeron were not glued and there is a gap between the former and the top sheeting and the longeron and the sheeting.. There is a snake visible in the picture because the pushrods were so thick they clashed at the rear end so I replaced one of them. As I said at the time this is not a structure, just a collection of balsa and ply parts held together with fresh air and hope.

[Biggestgerbil]

OOh! What a box of worms. I think I'll take up fishing.

 

Our club, Shropshire Model Flying Club, has had a  J.Perkins Seagull "Boomerang" trainer as a club trainer for about 4 years. Much abused, landed heavily, landed inverted, cartwheeled etc but apart from re- soldering the U/C it has had no major problems. (Being a trainer it eats props) Having said all that I have it in my workshop for it's regular winter "pull-through" and I think it's time for a re-cover. Also the wing tips are a little worse for wear.  I will do the same with it as my Wot4 Classic, fit 1/4" balsa wingtips.

 

Has anyone of you grass runway mob considered that enen if grass is well kept, it offers more resistance to the U/C than tarmac.  Proof? When I land my traditionally built Super 60 on grass the U/C folds up on it's elastic bands.  When landed on our tarmac runway it is usually OK.

 

[Aslan]

Never even entered my mind........ And now that you've proved it, I'm gobsmacked

[Stephen Grigg]

Especially this time of year when the grass is soaking wet,with worm mounds everywhere a mole popping up here and there and field mice burrowing all over the .place along the mole tracks.Big wheels sems to be the answer,ans no wheel spats to get filled with mud

[jez1973]

I have a new wot trainer and have to admit the quality is very poor. I am about to spend my 3rd weekend on the so called artf problem after problem.

 

Wheel bolts to long and need a spacer 2mm.

 

Wing spar too long needs cutting.

 

Servo tray not square and holes in wrong place to line up with servo snakes ect.

 

Retainer nut on fuel cover not glued (fell off).

 

Covering peeling away in 8-10 place. And many more issues....

 

DO NOT BUY A WOT TRAINER....

 

 

[Stephen Grigg]

Oh dear Jez thats not good.I have to report that my E bay Black Horse Extra 300S is excellant. I made a complte goolly of a take off when caught out by the wind .Someone had put a post to mark a mole trap on the strip.Of course I struck the post with the wing as I tip stalled the model with to much up elevator and not enough power.It was to many things for me at once.The result was an unmarked wing but the U/C removed.There is a good size block of wood for the uc,I managed to split both edges and no glue gave way.Very impressive It fitted back into position perfectly and I was able torepair the model very easily.The model does need loads of up to stop the tail from coming up but I didnt release the up in time

[sticky fingers]

I  read with interest  the many comments posted and my comments are, ARTF  are built to cater for fliers, not builders.Many fliers it would appear, have little knowledge of the stress imposed on an airframe in flight, particularly  G forces

It would appear that pre-flight /post flight checks are not carried out , these are essential to ensure structural integrity 

My advice is to develop an understanding of airframe stuctures, excellent articles by Peter Miller and Alex Whittaker ,and recognise potential poor build practices.

Model aircraft are definitely NOT toys they are miniature counterparts of the full size,and need much of the same consideration in regard to safety.

 dave

[colin watson]

FLITON VOTEC 531 supplied by als hobbies fliton say they stand 110% behind there quality built kits 

on its first flight on our perfectly mowed strip on the lightest of landings it's landing gear literally exploded totaly not fit for purpose emails to both fliton and als hobbies have yet to be answered having a light build doesn't mean you have to sacrifice strength at a major point like u/c mounting this aircraft on closer inspection was lucky to have got off from our strip which is like a bowling green 

so what happens to flitons promise of they stand 110% behind thier quality

[Chris Channon]

Hi all, perhaps we should all buy Great Planes stuff, never anything wrong with their ARTF's. !!!!!

 

Two Stearmans built and everything fits exactly as it should, i mean exactly, every hole, bolt, clevis etc lines up beautifully.

 

The ply box to fit within the cowl for ballast would make a lovely jewellery box for her indoors, i varnished mine, just because it is so nice !

 

Not cheap i know but, and here is the but, everything fits as it should and fits properly, i have not had to alter one thing during the build to make something fit, it all works.

 

Regards

 

Chris.

 

Normal disclaimer, i have no interest in Great-Planes apart from being a very satisfied customer.

[JOHN THOMPSON 5]

Hi all , recently bought a protech skyraider, electric glider , whilst the model itself seemed okay but were the ailerons are moulded as part of the epp foam wing , in the hinge section two longtiudinal cracks appeared rather quickly in the foam hinge, these were repaired with higes and carbon reinforcement on the leading edge of the aileron, within two flying sessions all the other control surfaces had to have the same treatment.

     On the patch, the radio gear supplied seemed rather glitchy, and then the fault showed itself rather dramatically when the crystal fell out of the reciever mid flight , fortunately the model was caught in some down draft and was unceremoniously dumped on the end of the run way, tried different crystals still did'nt work, changed to a fusion reciever - bingo problem solved , back on the patch , just as bad , it turns out that the protech gear is only guaranteed to transmit 80 meters , switched to futaba gear -job done flies a treat, so if anyone out there is thinking of adding one of these to the collection beware , even though it is supplied   you will probably need your own radio gear. all the best John

[Stephen Grigg]

80 metres seems very limited doesnt it

[Reno Racer]

All seagull and H9 models are good quality (I think phoenix is also made in the same factory as seagull.

[Kelly]

 

My H9 P-40  was rubbish   (see my blog).

 

I am tempted to buy another just to see if it was just  a one off  

[Paul Williams]

ARTF versus Self Build

We all have preferences when it comes to this subject and there are pluses and minuses to be had whichever way we chose to obtain our pride and glory. I have learnt many lessons reading the various subjects discussed on this forum and now I wish to share my experiences with you all.

I spent many hours deciding my winter build projects, should I build from plan or take the easier route and buy ARTF? After all the offered advice and debates I thought what the hell do both. I first purchased a Balsa USA kit ¼ Scale J3 Cub, my first large scale model. The build was an education and massive learning curve It went well and I enjoyed the process immensely. I was able to put my personal stamp on the model but the biggest plus for me was one I had not considered.

Shortly after the maiden flight the cub was involved in a mid air collision. One of those 1000=1 scenarios the plane took damage to the port wing, fuselage and undercarriage. I was gutted but picked up the pieces and headed for the shed. Within 3 days the cub was back in the air showing no signs of its recent crash and my wallet was hardly suffering the effects either. It was easy to repair due to my understanding of how it was built and having plans to replicate the parts needed. What was a major blow turned into a bit of inconvenience.

The ARTF route I took was another story. Again I bought big and for me the most expensive model I have to date. The Black Horse giant scale Corsair was everything I hoped it would be so I paid my £475 and headed home to build. If your interested in how that went I wrote a short review on this forum. The Corsair flew great and I was not disappointed until I had reason to try out Ripmax’s after sales service. I managed to damage the plane when the engine cut just after lifting off one day, the wing was damaged and minor cosmetic damage elsewhere. I phoned Ripmax to quote me the wing panel and cowel I needed, only to be informed they were not a stocked item! This was nearly four weeks ago. The rep although sympathetic informed me he would email the factory and see if the parts could be purchased he did advise me there would be a 6-8 weeks delivery time!!

I heard nothing for 4 days so I called back to be told communication was slow because the factory was half way round the world and they were all in bed when we were up. Ok although I always considered e-mails to be quite fast I agreed to phone back in another couple of days. The news was not good then either, apparently Black Horse build the wings to suit each fuselage so could not supply the parts needed. The ripmax rep agreed this was unfair and offered to have another go I was to ring back in another week. I duly phoned after 7 days and the same rep could not remember who I was or what he was supposed to be doing for me. I swallowed my anger at this and reminded him to which he offered to call me back. When he did so I was told maybe he could order the parts but could not promise the fact.

Some days later I called him to be informed the factory email was down and they could not be contacted

So here we are 4 weeks later the spares still not ordered and £1000 of aircraft sat in my garage missing this superb flying weather. I will now have to look at any possible legal action I can take although I fear this will be a non starter. So my pride and joy has turned into a nightmare I have no confidence Ripmax will solve this issue.

5 weeks now and I have a part number and price £120 for half a wing (ouch) the delivery has been promised for 4-8 weeks that makes 13 weeks from the accident IF it arrives within their time scale.

It’s now been over 12 weeks since my corsair was damaged still no sign of replacement parts. The flying season is galloping by and I have never regretted more a purchase than this one.

I certainly hope they start to improve this abysmal after sales service. 

ARTF or Build? I will certainly be building every plane from now on.

[001]

A very well stated point, with which I agree completely.

 Although there are some people who are interested only in flying and I would not criticise them.

 

I bought the Hangar 9 F22 from Galaxy, when it was £70. I had a slight mishap which damaged one wingtip, because I couldn't find the broken piece of wingtip structure in the thick grass, and also would have to buy a whole roll of covering material, if I could match the colour, I tried to find out if a spare wing was available..............

(Yes, I know, they come in pairs!)

 

The price quoted was £100 for the pair.

 It took me a couple of hours to repair the wing and I covered it in silver, not really close enough. But it is not a scale model.

(Any one got a few square inches of F22 grey film to spare)?

I know that the distributor has to charge for spares and the cost of keeping them in stock, but the chances are, they will stay in a corner of the storeroom at that price and in a few years there will be no demand for them so they will just be scrapped.

[Ken Lighten]

I have a Hangar 9 Fokker DVII that i've stripped to recover in a different scheme,  I couldn't believe it when I found that the pre-'fitted' aileron horns were only screwed with self tappers into a soft balsa block in the aileron! (they pulled out VERY easily), also some of the wing ribs (quite a few actually) had been broken during manufacture and  'repairs' were carried out with what looked like the shavings from the floor. The interplane strut mounting tabs are glued in with what looks like hot melt glue, which would be fine if the tabs were touching anything they were supposed to be attached to! - the rest of it appears to be OK and should be quite a good model when done.

[Reno Racer]

Just received my pre-built (so I suppose ARTF) Glens Model CAP 232 58" and I must say I am quite  impressed. I normally build all my own now, but this is to the same standard, light, but very robust. Top marks to Glen!

[Martin Johnson]

Seagull Edge 540

 

After reading the review of the Edge 540,  I bought one from SMC and converted it to electric.  On a Hyperion '42 ' series outrunner and 5S lipo it flies very well.  However a slightly firm landing tore the u/c mounting plate out of the fuselage.  I was surprised to find that Seagull with their excellent reputation had used inferior ply in the plate's construction.  Luckily it did not take long to fit a marine ply substitute and the a/c flew 6 trips yesterday with no problems.  Obviously the weight of the Lipo compared to the fuel tank was a factor so be warned.