A good reason not to buy cheap ARF's

[Rocky V.]

That's the kind of resolution you like to hear about. Let us know how it goes with the new one.

[TheTank]

Excellent to hear that! Thats why I always like to give suppliers/manufactures the benefit of the doubt, 99% of the time they will do the right thing.

[XJet]

Woah, hang on dude!

That's an AT40, they are one of the toughest trainers on the market.

Around these parts we fly them with big heavy 61s up front and pull maximum G's after vertical dives of several hundred feet without any problems -- in fact the wings are the strongest parts. Even after the worst crashes the wings almost always come through unscathed.

In fact, the Mt Roskill modellers are now flying AT40 speedway (pylon racing) and they're coming down to Tokoroa in January so we can go head-to head. They've got these things flying at 165Kph with *big* engines, tuned pipes and some fancy streamlining. They've also got a huge collection of wings that are the result of major prangs writing off (yet another) fuselage.

I suspect you were just dead unlucky with yours but I have to say that the basic design and construction is usually 100% tough.

There's a picture of my first AT40 on our club website. That minor damage (scuffed wing-tips and missing vertical stab is the result of a very high-speed encounter with a sealed runway. Took most of the fins off the motor, busted up the mount pretty good -- but it was flying again in an hour -- all the wings needed were a bit of covering film on the top.

Also, if you're looking to buy another (and you really should), get it from TopRC. They only charge $99 and should have stock in a couple of weeks. We've never had a single one of theirs go bang in the air.

[XJet]

	Quote: Originally Posted by coaster
	Good news!, Just got off the phone with the retailer and he is going to replace the plane. Seems I was right and he is one of the good guys!. He is even going to give me a new engine at half price. Really good to hear that others have had good experiences with these planes. Pick up a new plane tommorow and break out the epoxy as soon as I get home!.

If you can't find a reasonably priced crank for your OS then I'm happy to have a go at straightening the old one for you. I've straightened a fair few in my time and it's almost always possible to get them back to new if the runout is less than a few mm.

[coaster]

Well, the smell of epoxy is clearing from the house and I just need to install all the hardware tomorrow and I will be all go again!.

X-jet, I can get a crank from Acorn models for about $75, I figure If I go to the trouble of pulling the engine apart I might as well give her the full rebuild and put in new bearings and piston and liner depending on what condition they are in. The trouble with this idea is that that starts to put the cost right in the region of a new ASP engine and I can have one of those running in time for the weekend. The other problem is that I have never dismantled one of these tiny little engines before, someone said you have to heat them up in the oven to get the liner out?.

A lot of people have told me good things about the AT-40 since mine flew apart so I think it was just a one-off thing and I am rearing to go again!.

Roll around Sunday!.

[coaster]

That AT-40 Pylon racing looks too much fun to be legal!.

[ampEater]

	Quote: Originally Posted by coaster
	X-jet, I can get a crank from A***n m****ls for about $75,

Dont even mention that place here Ac**n Mo**ls ain't helping our hobby in any way. I can get 2 servos from the states for the price of one at Ac**n. Same goes with all their products. They dont even put any effort into helping any of their customers. We refer to them as the Manchester Bandit.

Anyway that's my opinion and rant. Sorry. Just warning ya

Your with CMAC right?

[ampEater]

Wow that one sounded a bit worse than i meant. Makes me sound like a real angry guy lol Im not really haha

[XJet]

	Quote: Originally Posted by coaster
	X-jet, I can get a crank from Acorn models for about $75, I figure If I go to the trouble of pulling the engine apart I might as well give her the full rebuild and put in new bearings and piston and liner depending on what condition they are in.

I think you'll be shocked at the price of a piston/liner pair. With most ABC engines these two parts come to about 80% the price of a whole new motor. Besides which, a good engine should last around 350 hours of use, if not more. I've got a TT46Pro that's nudging 300 hours and it's only a couple of hundred RPMs down on the new one I bought a few months back. The only work that old engine's had was a new set of bearings ($18) at 200 hours or so.

	Quote:
	The other problem is that I have never dismantled one of these tiny little engines before, someone said you have to heat them up in the oven to get the liner out?.

It depends -- sometimes the liner slides right out, other times it needs a bit of heat. The bearings will certainly require heat to remove, but it's a simple job -- throwing the crankcase in an oven at around 180 deg C for 10 minutes usually does the job.

However, if you're worried, you can send me the whole moter and i'll throw a dial indicator on the crank to see if it's worth fixing and let you know. I've got a full workshop up here -- I build jet engines and UAVs for a living so piston-engine stuff is easy-peasy :-)

	Quote:
	Roll around Sunday!.

If we get some decent weather -- man it's been windy as hell up here and on Thursday it rained so hard that visibility was less than the width of our runway.

[XJet]

	Quote: Originally Posted by ampEater
	Dont even mention that place here Ac**n Mo**ls ain't helping our hobby in any way. I can get 2 servos from the states for the price of one at Ac**n. Same goes with all their products.

Most retail hobby shops are the same now.

I went to a certain NZ agent for Hitec servos (and Thunder Tiger) a while back, wanting to buy four digitals (HS5925). Their price was exactly *twice* the price I'd have to pay to import them directly from somewhere in the US like ServoCity.

I suggested that if I was about to drop around $800 on servos, perhaps they could see their way clear to offer a little discount -- especially bearing in mind the 100% premium being demanded.

"No can do, those are the prices, take it or leave it" was the response.

So, although I'm always really keen to support local retailers, I imported directly and got them for a shade over NZ$450 including freight. Hell, if they'd said "okay, we'll give you 15% for cash" I'd have been glad to pay a bit more and avoid the hassle of importing -- but they didn't, so they lost the sale (and any chance of future sales to me) completely.

Meanwhile, I've since spent about US$2K with Servo City, mainly on servos, receivers and the like.

The same goes with other stuff like engines etc. Instead of pricing their products *realistically* and making modest but livable margines, most retailers seem hell-bent on achieving 100% markups. I don't mind paying more to support the local model industry but I'm blowed if I'm going to pay twice what something's worth.

Lots of the model-shops cry poor and claim that the internet (through private imports) is taking their business away. I'd argue that it's their rip-off pricing that's driving customers to the Net.

Mind you, there are still a few that keep their prices realistic (albeit not "cheap"). I buy a snot-load of stuff like clevises etc from 436. They offer great service (most stuff arrives the day after it's ordered through the Net) and for small stuff (clevises, horns, etc), it's just not worth importing direct at their prices.

[coaster]

Well here is AT-40 #2, ASP 52 up the front. Hope it's a good day tomorrow so I can fly her!.

	Quote:
	Dont even mention that place here Ac**n Mo**ls ain't helping our hobby in any way. I can get 2 servos from the states for the price of one at Ac**n. Same goes with all their products. They dont even put any effort into helping any of their customers. We refer to them as the Manchester Bandit.

I agree their prices are a bit steep and their product knowledge sucks, but they do have most of the little bits on hand and I can drop in and get most things immediately so it's not all bad, If a little hard on the wallet!.

	Quote:
	I think you'll be shocked at the price of a piston/liner pair.

X-jet, There is an outfit called Just Engines in the UK that will do a "Short motor"(Crankcase, Crank, Bearings, piston/liner and conrod) with supposedly better porting and a better liner coating than the O.S. version for around 50 Pounds shipping included, http://www.justengines.unseen.org .

I had already ordered the crank through Acorn when you made your kind offer so I will have a crack at replacing it myself, I might send the bent one to you though, never hurts to have a spare, Where do you get your bearings at $18 (a pair?), Cheapest I have seen is about $50. I was thinking that if the old ones are buggered I would just take them into a couple of places in town and see if they had any to match.


Got the car packed for tommorow already!!!.

[XJet]

	Quote: Originally Posted by coaster
	Well here is AT-40 #2, ASP 52 up the front. Hope it's a good day tomorrow so I can fly her!.

I hope you're going to put more rubber bands on than that before you fly :-)

	Quote:
	X-jet, There is an outfit called Just Engines in the UK that will do a "Short motor"(Crankcase, Crank, Bearings, piston/liner and conrod) with supposedly better porting and a better liner coating than the O.S. version for around 50 Pounds shipping included, http://www.justengines.unseen.org

That's still around NZ$150 -- hell, I can buy a brand new TT46Pro for that and the TT is every bit as good an engine as the OS.

	Quote:
	I had already ordered the crank through Acorn when you made your kind offer so I will have a crack at replacing it myself, I might send the bent one to you though, never hurts to have a spare, Where do you get your bearings at $18 (a pair?), Cheapest I have seen is about $50.

I buy my bearings from RC-Bearings in the USA. A set of OS46 bearings is US$$6.97 (NZ$10 or so) and he sends them out via USPS Priority mail (the other $8 or so) which means they take less than a week to arrive.

Paul, the guy who runs RC-Bearings is an excellent bloke to deal with and stands behind his products 100%. You can also opt to upgrade to stainless or ceramic bearings at a really good price too.

	Quote:
	I was thinking that if the old ones are buggered I would just take them into a couple of places in town and see if they had any to match.

When I priced the same bearings locally they wanted about NZ45 -- way expensive?

	Quote: