I guess it's my fault for saying that I'd have the thing together in a couple of days.  Talk about putting your foot in your mouth.  I've just gone through a very frustrating weekend of one problem after another.  Before I go any farther, I want to state right up front that this is in no way a slam at Brodak or any of their products, merely an honest evaluation of the problems that I ran into while trying to assemble this "ARF".

Maybe I've become spoiled by the R/C industry.  Most of the R/C ARF's (maybe 12 total) that I've put together have come from that side of the hobby.  Most have been of excellent quality, fit and finish, some haven't.

To start with, someone at Brodak should really take a look at the instruction manuals that Hangar 9 puts in their ARF kits.  The verbal instructions are easy to understand, and come with excellent, clear photos.  I'm sorry, but this manual that came with this Vector is awful.  If I hadn't built a lot of stunters before, as well as a lot of other planes, I would have been lost on this one.  The photos were dark, out of focus and almost impossible to make out.  The verbage was confusing at times and didn't match up with the photos.  I think a first time ARF builder, or even an inexperienced builder would have a tough time understanding this one.

In spite of that, I was cruising along pretty well.  Then it came time to fit the wing to the fuselage.  There is a piece of balsa that is glued to the top of the wing and I believe that it is there to help align the wing/fuselage during assembly and maybe provide a little extra bearing surface for the glue joint.  That piece of balsa was about 3/16" off center on mine.  I didn't pick that up immediately, (DUH) and couldn't figure out why my wing was sitting there crooked.  When I finally realized what the problem was, I decided to trim a little off of one side of the piece and add a slight amount to the other.  I had to very carefully cut throught one thickness of balsa, all the time watching not to cut through the wing sheeting.  It took a while, but it came out pretty well.  Problem solved, or so I thought.   The next problem became evident when I then set the wing in the wing saddles.  It wouldn't line up perpendicular to the fuselage as I looked at it from the front, and there were huge gaps between the wing and the fuselage sides.  Apparently the wing saddles or the wing itself were out of alignment somehow and no matter how I played with it, I couldn't improve the fit much at all.  I spent a lot of time trying to massage the saddles to iimprove the fit, but it wasn't getting much better.  I finally gave up and just used Gorilla glue to put it together.  There's some extra weight I hadn't planned on.  I'll have to go back and fit some balsa into the gap and try to get a good bond so that the wing doesn't separate from the fuselage on the first flight.  I also like to use baking soda and CA as a gap filler, it works really well. 

Anyway, that was my frustrating weekend.  It will be OK I guess.  I'm just a little disappointed.  In all fairness, from what I've heard about Brodak's return policy, I probably could have made a phone call and asked for a new wing, but I don't like to do that unless the defect is really not repairable in a reasonable amount of time.  I'm not sure what could have been done about the wing/fuse fit.  It's kind of funny, the manual says to secure the wing to the fuse with thin CA.  Yeah, right.  There's no way that would have worked at all.

I hope I didn't ruffle anyone's feathers with this account of my frustrating ARF build.  That wasn't my intent.   It's nice to have a venue where we can share problems like this and perhaps come up with some solutions for future members. 

Vince 

Howdy Geoff,

If you look closely at the first picture, you can see that the balsa piece on top of the wing is skewed, not offset.  It's centered OK in the rear and about 3/16" offset in the front.  If you look at the yellow covering at the leading edge, you can see the difference.  The end result was a very crooked wing.  I trimmed it to the black line and then the wing came out square.

I'd love to tour the factories and see just how these things are built.  If that piece was placed and glued by a machine, it is easy to understand how it could be off a little.   If it was put on there by a human, that person might have needed another cup of coffee or something.

By the way, there is no offset in this wing, it's symmetrical.  Both wing panels and both flaps measure exactly the same.  Wonder why the difference between this ARF and Randy's design?

Vince

It's been said before, I know, but the Arf/Arcs are a great "bang for the buck".
I admit to being a staunch BOM proponent because of tradition (and I like building! )

But I know that many can benefit from these products, I even have one myself!

It is great if we can pass along planes and equipment to those that appreciate them, and are in need.  It's been a "tradition" in this hobby forever!

Bill <><

Thanks guys, honestly, it's no biggie.  I understand that these planes are produced in some factory somewhere in China and sometimes parts get misaligned or whatever and things go wrong.  As you said Bob, my intent was merely to point out the problems that I was faced with and mention that it is possible to make the necessary repairs and get things back on track.  My overall impression of the airplane is very favorable.  The construction is excellent, nice and light, and the covering job has been done very well.  My only concern is the extra weight I added filling in the gap between the wing and the fuse.  That problem's been taken care of, and the plane is almost finished.  No need to dwell on it anymore.  Hey, it's a test crash dummy, as I stated before my goal is to have it live through the summer.  If I like the way it flys, I'll probably buy one of the kits next time and build one myself over the winter.  I deliberately didn't replace any of the control system components, I built it with all the parts that were provided to see how it would hold up.  For the price, I'm delighted, you can't beat it.  It's an excellent deal and a great time savings for someone needing a plane in a hurry.


I do have one more question.  I measured the nose of this thing several times and it looks like it takes a 1 5/8 dia spinner.  I looked on Tower and the only plastic spinners offered come in 1 1/2 and 1 3/4 diameters.  What are you guys that have built these ARFs using for spinners?  I'd rather not use a metal spinner as I'm trying to make up some weight due to the ST 46 up front.

I'll try to have some pictures tomorrow.

Vince