So, I was so happy to receive the notice from UPS that the shipment had made it to my home at around noon. Since I was at work, I was anxious to open my Christmas present, the present that my wife bought me. I got home inspected the box, noticed some minor damage to it.. Took some pictures as I opened it and here is what I saw on the outside of the box..
The pictures above correspond to Outside of box and model’s box inside.
It did not penetrate to inside cavity where model is packaged.
The first thing that popped out and screamed at me was the badly installed decals on the wings. They are the biggest eye sore I have ever seen. They almost look like a 5th grader put them on. Pictures don’t show all the wrinkles as they only show about 3 inches of surface area..
After the wings blew my bubble and my eagerly awaited RC plane, which by the way cost just a few cents short of $145.00; I continued the inspection of the box’s contents..
What my eye’s encountered was simply amazing. Putting the wings wrinkled decals thing aside, I continued to be at awe at the model’s clean lines and beautiful curbs. Looked so,
Incredibly nice, I couldn’t wait to put it together… Until !!!
I took the fuse out of the bag and began the inspection of it..
Jumping out at me was this huge dent on top of the fuse and right behind the canopy. This did not correspond,
to any of the box’s damage on the outside. The model was so well packaged inside, that it could have been thrown from a moving truck at 40mph.. and it would have survived unscathed.It was very secured with foam all around the model, there was no way that any loose objects inside the box would have been the cause of this dent right behind the canopy.. Here is what I saw before I pull the fuse out of the bag.
On the above picture, I forgot to replace the packaging cross member, which goes just about where the arrow is located on the 2 notches there..
Removing the fuse from the plastic bag this screamed at me and my bubble of happiness was slowly replaced by shear sadness..
I turned over the fuse to see the underside and guess what I saw.. YES, yet another dent. There’s no way to blame UPS as the model was securely
packaged and the contents inside were not loose.. so as to hit the model in any way.. Besides, the dent under the fuse has a red smear where something hit it.
Must have been done during assembly.. or during installation of components..
Putting the fuse aside, I inspected the rudder.. What can I say, It just wasn’t right….
The rudder itself looked crooked.. Come to find out, the hinges were not installed and glued on centered to the vertical stabilizer. The top part of the rudder stick out past the vertical stab and the lower part of the rudder sticks out in the opposite side past the vertical stabilizer with at least 2mm of protrusion..
Putting the vertical stabilizer aside, I returned to the fuse to see the battery compartment.. I gently lifted the canopy and it was hard and did not want to budge. Pulled a little harder and it opened only to reveal that both magnets on one side were glued to the canopy’s metal pieces and in opening, guess what,.. Yes, the magnets dislodged from the frame and I had to pry them off the canopy’s piece using a pair of needle nose pliers.. Now, there’s a 1mm thick wall were I’m now supposed to glue one of said magnets too.. The thickness left at the fuse where the magnets go is so thin that I’m afraid that gluing them even with foam safe glue will melt the wall. And if I glue them back once you pull on it to remove canopy, the magnet will tear the remainder of wall to leave nothing to glue too..
I removed the Radio from it’s bag and this is what I saw..
Is this the way they ship your radios now? There’s no reversing buttons.. They might think they are not necessary to put them in, since this is a RTF RC plane, but I paid for a complete package.. At this point I think I’m missing parts to the complete radio.. Maybe, they think that adding buttons will confuse beginners, but let me assure you. This RC plane is not in any way for beginners.. I wouldn’t be buying this model if I had never flown an RC plane.. Give me a radio that is complete!!
Getting back to inspecting the wings.. One other thing that jumped at me when I was doing the second inspection after the decal horrendous installation..
The right side Aileron, just like the rudder is not installed centered to wing. The hinges are glued on wrong or too high and make this aileron stick up 2mm from the wings surface area. This…..in any model is a NO NO!!
How can you expect to fly this thing straight when the surface wing and aileron are not flushed?
This is just not build right.. And at this point, my enthusiasm has all but disappeared and I’m left dumbfounded. I don’t want this model and as a result of the horrendous workmanship in building this model, by people that are in a hurry to get them out the door… I will return it fairly quickly. Almost as quick as they sent it..
Venting complete!!
"Expecting a carjacker or rapist or drug pusher to care that his possession or use of a gun is unlawful is like expecting a terrorist to care that his car bomb is taking up two parking spaces." -Joseph T. Chew