Kits - was PL Prod

[Earl Haury]

"Availability" is a big issue for me. When I decide to fly a particular airplane it's nice to be able to acquire it. In the good old days, one simply picked up a Kaos, or Compensator, or Mach 1 at the local LHS. When was the last time anyone saw a "modern" pattern plane at the LHS? Seems they disappeared about the time fiberglass / foam became popular. Now months pass from the time a new design is "introduced" until it hits the market - in very limited quantities. Makes one really plan ahead! Any mishap along the way and it can take a season to recover.

The manufacturers have limited production and the marketers don't invest the capital to stock a bunch of kits. Of course were (at least partly) to blame because we're always on the lookout for the "best" design, and quickly move last years design to the antique category. 

Yes, one can scratch build. Been there. A few years ago I decided to switch to the Hydeout, built one and liked it, went to buy another and they were out of production. So, I scratch built a balsa version. Weighed less than the glass and was quieter, flew it for a couple of seasons. But the balsa fuse was easy to ding (I'm clumsy), composite works better for me. A standing truism in Dist 6 is that if Bryan Hebert and Mike Harrison put the time they spend building into flying, they would be awesome (they're pretty good anyway). No doubt building doesn't develop the same skills as flying.

Mike, me, and a few others discussed the merits of scratch building a version of the PL Partner vs. ordering from PL. Some of us chose to go with PL, waited about 5 months for delivery, spent a couple of months building, and had new airplanes for the 2004 season. Mike chose not to deal with PL, designed his own airplane, with the help of AeroSlave generated kits, built the Symphony, and had a new airplane in the air late in '04. Both paths took patience, hard work, skill, lots of money, and a little luck. All much more than many have the resources and/or energy for.

Fortunately, we've good choices from PAC, Piedmont, CA Models, Oxai, CompositesARF, etc. These folks provide good value in a variety of price ranges and some of them can be brought to the flying stage quickly. Or one can always scratch build - a whole lot less costly and there's no need to wait for delivery. (Anyone care to reinstate the "builder of the model" rule?) We've better choices in kits / arfs / designs than we've ever had in pattern. Now if the stuff was just "available"! 

Earl
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