>On RCGroups tonight I saw something that I thought I would never see for sale, >a $1K DLG, >it is a Vandal fullhouse ship with RADS. Be the first to admit that I have >spent my >fair share on ships, but a DLG for $1000? That environment is >way too tough >on airframes >for me to toss that amount up into the crowded HLG skies. Hell, it is too >tough for $150 ships.
Marc, That is pretty normal now for top-end DLGs. You can RTF a competitive DLG (from an ARF) yourself for as little as $500-$600 or so in plane and electronics. A Vandal is a small shop competition-class glider with (my guesstimate) 30 or more hours of construction and assembly labor in it, ~$100 in materials, $175-225 in electronics. Don't forget the four RDS (RAD) installations. 1K sounds about right for a glider in near-new condition. And Vandal is a GREAT glider. Ask anyone who has flown one. As to how tough the flying environment is for hand launch, yeah, hand launch is very demanding flying. You get to see how good your soaring skills are, really quickly! Why do so many people love hand launch? I think because meeting the hand launch challenge is so satisfying, especially when you have a great-flying plane. They do things that seem almost impossible. We have so many good planes to choose from now, one might think the cost would come down. Unfortunately, it takes *a lot* of time and effort to create one of these goodies. The best dollar deal is to build it yourself. We all pay in dollars or time. ;) Aradhana Singh Khalsa Espanola, NM RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off. Email sent from web based email such as Hotmail and AOL are generally NOT in text format