[DA2000]

Dalton is definitely not going out of business, just relocating to Arizona.

I have experience with all three, most recently with the Godfrey. I have three of them in various stages of construction in the shop as we speak.

The foam parts on all three are virtually identical, so not much to talk about. The wood quality is pretty close.

It comes down to fuse construction. The Dalton is laser cut, self jigging construction throughout, including the motor box and firewall. After the the ply parts, you sheet the sides with balsa.

The Carden is a truss design using 3/8 sticks, then sheeted with balsa. The fuse is built over the plans with no alignment tabs. Not diffficult, but very time consuming. Then, if you want to shed some weight, you will spend many hours with the dremel, scroll saw, router, etc.

The Godfrey is CNC Milled lite ply with alignment tabs. The big difference with the Godfrey are the lite ply fuse sides with NO sheeting. It pretty much self aligns itself. It does lack alignment tabs on the firewall, which is no biggie.

To put all of this in perspective: With the substantial amount of building experience I had before I became involved with 40% airframes, I can lay it out in time and difficulty to build a straight fuse.

Carden (lightened): 50 hours
Dalton: 10 hours
Godfrey: 3 hours

All three kits are comparable in quality, the Dalton and Godfrey being less expensive.

Flying:

All of the Cardens are great flying airplanes.

The Daltons also fly very well. I have over 1000 flights on my 260 over the last 3 years and it is holding up great.

I have very limited experience with actual flight time on the Godfrey, but have high hopes! As previously mentioned, give Robert a call, he is happy to talk about it. There are a lot of things Robert has done to optimize the airframe for pattern. From the friends I've spoken to that have the 300, they seem to work.

Bottom line, any will serve you well. The Godfrey definitely gets my vote for the quickest/straightest build with the least effort.

D