stunthanger.com
Vendors Corner => Robin's View Productions => Topic started by: Bob Hunt on July 08, 2019, 08:58:28 AM
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An open letter to all our loyal customers:
The wings I produce through Robin’s View Productions generally cost more than wings from other manufacturers. The very best always costs more, and it’s always worth it. I have been producing custom wing cores and custom sheeted wings since 1969, and I am planning to continue doing so for at least another few years. So any rumors of my retirement from the business is premature.
Throughout all the years that I have been producing wings, quality has been priority number one. And a part of quality in this area is the weight of the product. I have always used the very best premium Contest Grade balsa on the wings I produce. Very often I will receive an order of 1/16 x 3 x 36 - inch wood (which is the standard thickness wood that I have used for the past several years) that is supposed to be 4 to 6 pound density Contest Grade, and when grading it find a lot of the wood in the order to be 7 pound density or more in weight. Those pieces are not used in production of CL wings by me. That means that each piece of useable wood becomes more valuable, and hence worth more. That is one reason the wings that I produce are more expensive than those made by others.
I have absorbed a number of price increases over the past few years without raising my prices. Unfortunately, the latest increase in prices has made it necessary to now increase the prices of my covered wings and tail components. I just got off the phone with my balsa supplier (who sells only wholesale to the trade), and was shocked to hear that the latest price increase is 30%! And I was informed that Contest Grade balsa is getting much harder for them to get on a regular basis, regardless of price. And, I was informed that the balsa situation will not improve in he foreseeable future.
So, reluctantly, I am increasing my covered wing prices by 20% starting on August first. The price of the un-sheeted foam cores, and all of the other foam services will remain the same as in the current price list (which is in another thread on this part of the forum). Note, I will still be absorbing all the earlier price increases and 10% of this latest one.
There is a silver lining in this rather black cloud. Back when I started producing covered foam core wings, I used .045 (3/64th) inch thick balsa. There was a scarcity of light 1/16-inch balsa back then as well (due to the use of light balsa to line the holds in super tanker ships.) I found that I could use slightly denser balsa in the thinner sections and not only produce a light wing, but also one which, due to the slightly denser balsa, which would not soak up as much finish as the softer balsa skins. The result was wings which were strong, light, and easier to finish lightly.
Recently I took a large stack (several hundred sheets) of 1/16 balsa that was just slightly heavier in density than the stock I use on my production wings, and had it sanded down to .045 (3/64th). I used that wood to cover a customers wing at his request, and that wing came out very light and very strong. I’m strongly considering going back to the .045 sheeting as the standard for our covered wings. Virtually all the wings I produced in the 1970s were covered with the .045 wood very successfully. And, there were hundreds of them in service with no issues reported.
I’ve noticed that a wing manufacturer has taken to touting his product on the Open Forum section here. It is my understanding that we are not supposed to use the Open Forum to promote our products. It is acceptable, however, to inform the forum members that there are new products or services available and that if they are interested they should go to Vendors Corner for specific information. And, that’s exactly what I am doing here.
The following is an excerpt from our Foam Wing Services price list, and I’m posting it here along with the above message just to remind everyone why Robin’s View Productions wings are considered the very best world wide.:
Bob Hunt has been cutting foam wings for all types of model airplanes since 1969. His expertise in cutting foam cores and crafting finished foam and built-up wings is well known and highly respected worldwide in not only the modeling field but also in the full-scale aviation industry. In addition to the thousands of model airplane wings that Bob has cut and/or built, he has also produced many wind tunnel test model wings for McDonnell Douglas, Lockheed and Mississippi State University and foam propeller blades for Rensalaer Institute’s man-powered aircraft Kremer Prize attempt.
When it comes to winning performance, wings cut and/or built by Bob have won more CL Stunt World and National Championships than those crafted by all other commercial wing producers combined! CL Stunt models featuring Bob’s wings have also won hundreds of local and regional contests. In addition, models with wings built by Bob have won several National Championships in RC Pattern and RC Scale.
Believing that the only way to significantly improve the technology of building competition wings is to participate, Bob has flown models fitted with his wings to one personal World Championship win, one Silver Medal finish in World Championship competition and four National Championship crowns (One Open CL Stunt and Walker Trophy win flying his original design Genesis 46 Mk III, three consecutive National Classic Stunt wins flying his original design Caprice, and five consecutive VSC wins flying the Caprice.).
There are numerous innovations that are directly traceable to Bob’s competition flying and his on-going development program. Among these are triple section coring for CL Stunt foam core wings; full-depth Lite Plywood spars with balsa caps; foam flaps that are cut as an integral part of the foam core and then separated after sheeting and sanding, insuring a perfect fit to the airfoil; the Lite-Plywood landing gear rib system that has been adopted by virtually all CL foam wing builders; and, most recently, a method for cutting a perfectly accurate radius on the leading edge of foam cores and a system for molding and installing hyper-accurate leading edge caps which mate to the wing’s sheeting during the covering process.
Now you can take advantage of Bob’s 50-plus years of foam wing research and development and the experience gleaned from the thousands of wings that he has cut and/or covered during that time. Every Foam Core, Foam Wing, Lost-Foam Wing Building Fixture and Lost-Foam built-up wing purchased from Robin’s View Productions is crafted personally by Bob Hunt. Bob is serious about making the very best model airplane wings in the world, and if you want to win, you should be serious about taking advantage of that!
Remember the Robin’s View Productions’ motto: “Relentless Innovation!”
Thanks to all my loyal customers for their years of support. I will continue to provide my modeling services at the uppermost levels for as long as I am able.
Yours for better modeling - Bob Hunt
President Robin’s View Productions
610-746-0106
robinhunt@rcn.com
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Hi Bob,
Not that you need a plug from an unknown but I wanted to throw my 2 cents in. I am extremely pleased and pleasantly surprised with the wings and stabs I received from you recently.
Being new to CL Stunt and coming from the F3A Pattern community I was beginning to feel that my expectations might have been quite a bit on the high side in regards to what I was expecting and what I was actually getting for my money from other vendors. For me personally, some of what I received was not only unusable but also unsalvageable.
Unfortunately, for whatever reason, I was given an extra amount of picky and attention to detail genes at creation and apparently you were also because the product I received from you, in my opinion, is fantastic.
Worth every penny you charged me. I am happy to know that I now have a source to purchase from to substantially speed up my building projects.
Thanks again,
Russell
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As my friends father told him. “If you buy the best you only cry once.”
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I have exclusively used Bob's products since the early 1990's, both wings, stabs, and Lost Foam Jigs.
They are the very best. Bob does such fine work I can't imagine anything better at any price! In fact I always consider them the best around in quality and innovation!
Randy Cuberly