Originally Posted by FoamieAirfarce

Amen!

There is a buzz phrase going around I am hearing more and more;

"I'm too broke to buy cheap"

I'm kinda fed up with club members who keep coming up and wondering why their planes fold up and fall out of the sky like shot ducks.

Because the insist on buying from HobbyKing.

This hobby is tentative enough when you launch a plane in 110% up and running condition with the best state-of-the-art components that money can buy.

'Saving money' and 'radio control aircraft' should never be used in the same paragraph if you want an edge on success.

If you can't afford to field a 40% gasser aerobat with the best gear the industry has to offer? Then down shift to a state-of-the-art nitro model and be the best in the world at flying that.

Or birdwatching. Birdwatching is OK.

Horsepututy! lol

There are plenty of examples of people using hobbyking gear successfully. MKS servos, now considered high end, started life on Hobbyking. If people exercise their due diligence they can purchase inexpensive gear so they can enjoy the hobby along elitists such as yourself. Telling someone to bird-watch because they cant burn 7 grand on a toy airplane is ludicrous.

A Taranis is $240 with a 16 channel rx and is arguably one of the best radios one can buy if you focus on function not form. It has a very robust programming and an incredible reliable link. A link I personally have used out over 3 miles away with FPV. However one could substitute it with a Hobbyking 9xr pro and have similar success.

Originally Posted by rnpnick

A Taranis is $240 with a 16 channel rx and is arguably one of the best radios one can buy if you focus on function not form. It has a very robust programming and an incredible reliable link. A link I personally have used out over 3 miles away with FPV. However one could substitute it with a Hobbyking 9xr pro and have similar success.

This belongs in a different thread, but thank you for clearly identifying yourself as one who admittedly disregards all rules set forth by AMA and FAA as to FPV / Drone flying.

Originally Posted by Islandflyer

This belongs in a different thread, but thank you for clearly identifying yourself as one who admittedly disregards all rules set forth by AMA and FAA as to FPV / Drone flying.

This belongs in a different thread but no such rules existed when those flights occurred. I have not flown FPV since the FAA bullish came down.

Well, these tanks are not cheap. They are the same price as Fortitude. People started buying them because you could not get Fortitude tanks anywhere for a while. I personally thought they had gone out of business.

Originally Posted by rnpnick

Telling someone to bird-watch because they cant burn 7 grand on a toy airplane is ludicrous.

I never suggested that anyone who can't spend that amount of money has no place in the hobby. I never suggested, or made reference to, any amount of money. I did make reference to a 40% aerobat. If you can't field a state-of-the-art 40% aerobatic model for less than 7K?! You don't know where to shop. But that is well and aside my point.

I was agreeing with others in the thread ; if you can't give yourself the edge you need to succeed in the hobby by buying quality, and by 'quality' I mean just that; quality controlled merchandise that is proven and backed by the manufacturer to be up to the task you expect of it? Disregarding cost?(expensive doesn't mean 'quality' and inexpensive doesn't mean 'poor quality')? Then trade down in performance to a level where you can afford or source quality products.

This is a state-of-the-art quality product;



http://www.horizonhobby.com/t-28-trojan-pnp-pkz4475

Guaranteed and fully backed quality assurance and customer service. Bound to give the modeler hundreds if not thousands of flights of trouble free joy and satisfaction. Slightly less than 7K.

I am one of the instructor pilots at our club. Time and time again new members show up wanting to learn to fly with no equipment or the slightest direction in which to turn.

I will initially buddy box them on the above model. If that excites them and they want to proceed, I will ALWAYS recommend the cheapest version Real Flight RC flight simulator available (optional, highly recommended) that Park Zone B-N-F T-28 of their own and a Spektrum DX6, as a base point from which to explore the hobby.

They will then go and do their due diligence at the hobby shop or the inter net. I don't quote prices for manufacturers or make assumptions regarding their own personal finances. I only offer my opinion. They asked for my help and guidance through the club, I didn't approach them.

One of three things will invariably happen;

1. They don't return at all.

2.They may return and say,; "Whoa! I went on the inter net and looked at that plane and radio you told me I should get. Not going to happen! Way too much money!"

If that entry level price point is too rich for their wallet? Then I think, in my opinion, sophisticated radio controlled aircraft may not be the hobby for them. If that makes me an elitist in your eyes? Fine.

But then they say that thing;

"Have you ever heard of HobbyKing?!" They have a T-28 for A LOT LESS! It has flaps, and retractable landing gear, and lights and EVERYTHING! AND they have a MUCH COOLER radio that's cheaper too, it's ORANGE!

3. Some actually do return with what I suggested.

The learning curve of the latter goes through the roof and in a few short weeks has soloed and is well on his way to enjoying his hobby while the second scenario guy never got started wondering why one of his retracts never operated out of the box, or that one aileron servo only made it through that one flight, or the ESC went out and took the linear BEC with it and the plane is now a pile of junk, why his radio won't range check or hold bind and why they can't get HobbyKing on the phone and "Oh, just screw it! I give up" before they really even get started.

I know of what I speak. I ran the gamut of all the FMS 1300-1500 mm foamie waahhhhhbuurds through Nitroplanes and some foamie EDF's through HobbyKing. It's how I got my FG screen name. Then I learned. Those planes ALL went in perfect condition after hours of modding and tweaking throwing good money after bad , with full disclosure, for $ .50 on the dollar to people I made sure knew what they were getting into; a tentative situation at best. I now field the best I can afford from manufacturers the experienced and successful modelers recommend. And that may mean, often, buying 'used'. The plane in my avatar cost some guy 3K. Certainly not me.

But so it goes, all the way up through the rank and levels to guys trying to field a giant scale plane on the cheap and wondering why they are frustrated, getting nowhere with their skills, stuffing models and why the experienced guys at the field have short patience with them. Our club has lost many, many, many members who have stuffed cheap giant scale ARF's. Again, and again, and again until they just go away. It's sad, but they just wouldn't learn.

If you are an experienced modeler and you want to sift through the chaff of non-quality controlled and non-proven Chinese technologies, wading through a 178 page thread on RCGroups tweaking, modding, redesigning, retrofitting and improving cheap to save a buck? Fine. Whatever floats your boat. The hobby is varied. Some guys like to do that stuff. Some guys like to chew on tin foil. Not I.

Personally? I'm over it and past it as part of my own learning curve and don't prefer to see other neophytes have to put up with it or go through it.

"You get what you pay for"

I didn't write that. But there's a reason it's endured as a cliche`. It's true!

And I wasn't being facetious about birdwatching. I do that too. It really is OK. And as cheap as a 'meh' pair of binoculars and a walk through the countryside.

You must work in the political arena.

I think we can simply disagree and move on.

Originally Posted by FoamieAirfarce

I never suggested that anyone who can't spend that amount of money has no place in the hobby. I never suggested, or made reference to, any amount of money. I did make reference to a 40% aerobat. If you can't field a state-of-the-art 40% aerobatic model for less than 7K?! You don't know where to shop. But that is well and aside my point.

I was agreeing with others in the thread ; if you can't give yourself the edge you need to succeed in the hobby by buying quality, and by 'quality' I mean just that; quality controlled merchandise that is proven and backed by the manufacturer to be up to the task you expect of it? Disregarding cost?(expensive doesn't mean 'quality' and inexpensive doesn't mean 'poor quality')? Then trade down in performance to a level where you can afford or source quality products.

This is a state-of-the-art quality product;



http://www.horizonhobby.com/t-28-trojan-pnp-pkz4475

Guaranteed and fully backed quality assurance and customer service. Bound to give the modeler hundreds if not thousands of flights of trouble free joy and satisfaction. Slightly less than 7K.

I am one of the instructor pilots at our club. Time and time again new members show up wanting to learn to fly with no equipment or the slightest direction in which to turn.

I will initially buddy box them on the above model. If that excites them and they want to proceed, I will ALWAYS recommend the cheapest version Real Flight RC flight simulator available (optional, highly recommended) that Park Zone B-N-F T-28 of their own and a Spektrum DX6, as a base point from which to explore the hobby.

They will then go and do their due diligence at the hobby shop or the inter net. I don't quote prices for manufacturers or make assumptions regarding their own personal finances. I only offer my opinion. They asked for my help and guidance through the club, I didn't approach them.

One of three things will invariably happen;

1. They don't return at all.

2.They may return and say,; "Whoa! I went on the inter net and looked at that plane and radio you told me I should get. Not going to happen! Way too much money!"

If that entry level price point is too rich for their wallet? Then I think, in my opinion, sophisticated radio controlled aircraft may not be the hobby for them. If that makes me an elitist in your eyes? Fine.

But then they say that thing;

"Have you ever heard of HobbyKing?!" They have a T-28 for A LOT LESS! It has flaps, and retractable landing gear, and lights and EVERYTHING! AND they have a MUCH COOLER radio that's cheaper too, it's ORANGE!

3. Some actually do return with what I suggested.

The learning curve of the latter goes through the roof and in a few short weeks has soloed and is well on his way to enjoying his hobby while the second scenario guy never got started wondering why one of his retracts never operated out of the box, or that one aileron servo only made it through that one flight, or the ESC went out and took the linear BEC with it and the plane is now a pile of junk, why his radio won't range check or hold bind and why they can't get HobbyKing on the phone and "Oh, just screw it! I give up" before they really even get started.

I know of what I speak. I ran the gamut of all the FMS 1300-1500 mm foamie waahhhhhbuurds through Nitroplanes and some foamie EDF's through HobbyKing. It's how I got my FG screen name. Then I learned. Those planes ALL went in perfect condition after hours of modding and tweaking throwing good money after bad , with full disclosure, for $ .50 on the dollar to people I made sure knew what they were getting into; a tentative situation at best. I now field the best I can afford from manufacturers the experienced and successful modelers recommend. And that may mean, often, buying 'used'. The plane in my avatar cost some guy 3K. Certainly not me.

But so it goes, all the way up through the rank and levels to guys trying to field a giant scale plane on the cheap and wondering why they are frustrated, getting nowhere with their skills, stuffing models and why the experienced guys at the field have short patience with them. Our club has lost many, many, many members who have stuffed cheap giant scale ARF's. Again, and again, and again until they just go away. It's sad, but they just wouldn't learn.

If you are an experienced modeler and you want to sift through the chaff of non-quality controlled and non-proven Chinese technologies, wading through a 178 page thread on RCGroups tweaking, modding, redesigning, retrofitting and improving cheap to save a buck? Fine. Whatever floats your boat. The hobby is varied. Some guys like to do that stuff. Some guys like to chew on tin foil. Not I.

Personally? I'm over it and past it as part of my own learning curve and don't prefer to see other neophytes have to put up with it or go through it.

"You get what you pay for"

I didn't write that. But there's a reason it's endured as a cliche`. It's true!

And I wasn't being facetious about birdwatching. I do that too. It really is OK. And as cheap as a 'meh' pair of binoculars and a walk through the countryside.

I just received my first tank from Taildragger yesterday. Very nice quality indeed. I pressurized it and put it underwater for 30 minutes. No sign of leakage at all. It will go in an airplane this evening.

Bill Hodges

Chad from Taildragger RC told me that they test all their tanks and I believe theirs is a brass fitting instead of a steel fitting which theirs is probably a higher quality than the ones I had.

Originally Posted by vegasking1961

Chad from Taildragger RC told me that they test all their tanks and I believe theirs is a brass fitting instead of a steel fitting which theirs is probably a higher quality than the ones I had.

I've got 5 tanks with standard and one with Brass. No leakers. Brass fittings are exactly identical to the steel just different material. Same construction other than that.

Scott