jet22b

That's great news to hear!!! Hope to have mine back in the air soon!!

Sonny

Mikecam

Here is the reply from hobbico's senior manager for service and support Art Pesch. If you had a problem with your texan then contact Hobby services and make it Att. Art Pesch. Please come back here and give us an update on how they did or did not help you. I have been a happy Hobbico customer but will wait to hear from some of you that have had issues to find out how hobbico has supported you. I understand that we can't all have perfect landings all the time and that any manufacturer can have a failure if we land hard enough. That said if you had a routine landing and still had problems with the retracts then please contact Hobby Services and keep us posted on the outcome.

I had a problem with my first trainer. It was a problem in the wing of a nexstar and Hobbico sent me out a brand new wing no charge. I told myself I would be a Hobbico customer for life so I'm hoping some of you will be taken care of like I was. And no I do not work for the company. lol Thanks



Good Morning Dan,
Your E-mail was forwarded to me concerning the Top Flite AT-6 Texan ARF and your comments on the included retracts.

This ARF airplane was developed and extensively tested by our R&D Department for many months prior to its release to market. During the course of this testing, the retracts were subjected to many hard landings on both paved runways and grass fields. The plane was also ballasted to a weight that was in excess of its recommended top weight. Thru all of these tests the retracts performed well.

That being said, there is always a chance of problem on an ARF that is mass produced. Hobbico stands behind its products and will make things right with any modeler that has a problem due to a defect.

They can contact us at:

Hobby Services
3002 N Apollo Drive, Suite 1
Champaign IL 61822
(217)398-0007
[email protected]

Sincerely,

Art Pesch

Senior Manager
Service and Support

Hobbico

cfossa

My Feedback: (5)

Hi Guys,

Regarding the retract problems, I've seen pics on the thread of the retract rails failing. Is the problem with the stock retract gear strenth, or with needing to reinforce the mounting rails, or both?

Thanks,

Carl

jet22b

Carl;

I just went into my workshop and look at the old wing and found the the rails also fail. I think this is way the wings had that much damage!! Looking at the new wing, I think I will go in and reinforce the landing gear rails. I know from buildimg so many kits, they always tell you to reinforce the high stress area, ( ie landing gear, firewall, and wing mount rail.
I have seen alot of ARF does not adress these area.
Yes, I would say, go and reinforce the landing gear rails. I know I will!!!

Sonny

propshaft

Another TF retract failure!

My TF AT6 went up for its maiden flight this afternoon. It is powered by a TH .75 2-stroke and it performed without any problems during the first flight and landing. On the second flight I tried a few scale maneuvers (loops, slow barrel rolls, wingovers etc) and the plane did the maneuvers quite well. I deployed the landing gear and full flaps to slow the landing approach and came in for a normal touch-down. To my surprise the right landing gear failed about 15 feet into the roll-out. I fly off grass, but it was not a hard landing by any standard. Inspecting the retract revealed a cracked railing similar to the pictures posted on an earlier posting on this thread. Luckily the plane was almost at a standstill when the failure occurred, so there was no collateral damage. There was NO reason for this failure except for a poorly designed/manufactured component supplied by TopFlite.

Needless to say I am disappointed that TF would sell such junk and specifically claim in their flyers about this plane regarding the retracts: "Sturdy, high-quality mechanical retractable landing gear". Sturdy??? High quality??? Maybe they don't understand English! I will contact them and will be sure to report their response for the world to see. If their customer service is similar to their products and advertising they have seen the last of my hobby-dollars. I hope Robart has a good supply of retracts for this plane. They are going to sell a few.

propshaft

Carl,

On my plane the plastic railing of the retract housing cracked and the crack spread into the housing itself, causing the locking mechanism to fail and the retract to collapse. The wood railing onto which the retract was screwed remained undamaged. The only alteration I did to the wood during assembly was to paint it with a fuel-proof paint.

jet22b

propshaft;

Sorry to hear about your gear failure and happy your texan was not damage to bad.
To many people are having the same failure of the gears. Like I have posted before, I have built and flown lots of Top Flites planes and was happy with them.
I just receive a email from Robart about the 618 air retract for the Top Flite AT-6 Texan and they are in the production stage and will be shipping by the end of this week.
This is a sweet airplane and I love the way it flys. I hope the Robarts gear work and I can be happy again!!!

Sonny

maddieone

My Feedback: (2)

Propshaft,

I am heartened to finally see that there is another soul who thinks as I do. I am not going to spend any more money on this trash plane. I will never buy another Top Flite anything. In fact I have taken all of the gear out of it and put it in a nice new H9 P47. The plane just went back up into the rafters whence it came from when I had the lousy covering job and gave up on it then. And the note from TF is just another example of 'hot air'. Got a similar response when I contacted them concerning the covering. There answer was that I should have set the whole mess back to them as occasionly 'one or two' slip into the stream. I know that there were at least a half dozen of us that had bad covering.

Rest of the thread team, don't ask for it, I wouldn't give it to my worst enemy.

Curt

jet22b

Curt;

I am with you on this one!! I will give it one more try. I don't know what happen to Top Flite. They use to be a top notch company. Top Flite is now off of my list and my money will not go to them again. I also have been looking at the H9 P47. Please let me know how you like the build and flying!!
Have a great weekend my friend!!

Sonny

CCFPILOT

I too own a TF AT6, and agree that the landing gear is junk, and I don't want to spend the money for Robart Retracts.

I also have a TF B25J, that is GREAT, so, I don't think that you should judge Top Flight on just one airplane.

propshaft

I agree that TF should not be judged on one plane. And actually the plane itself is pretty good in my opinion. Mine had almost perfect covering and I really like the way it looks and flies. The thing that irks me is that they don't seem to own up to the fact that they had a problem on at least some of the production run on both covering and retracts. I think they should solve the retract and covering problems and offer to replace sub-standard stuff that "slipped through". Are we to assume that when we buy something from them it is a matter of chance whether or not it will work as advertised? I think not.

jet22b

If I did not love this airpalne, I would not spend the money on the Robarts Gears for it. I think there was a bad batch of landing that found its way into some of the ARF. I can remember when the first batch of T-Rex 700N helicopter from Align
came with bad ball links, but they fix the problem and ask all who had the bad ball links to email them and they would send out replacement links to make things right. They found out that the company that made the links had a bad batch, but they ship them anyway to Align so that the 700 would go out on time. This maybe the case with the landing gear for Top Flite AT-6 Texan. I think people would be happy if Top Flite just came out and said that the company that make the landing gear for the AT-6 had a bad batch of gears that made its way into some ARF and they would be happy to make things right. Can not wait til the Robarts gear come in and I can have the AT-6 back into the air!!!

Have a fun and safe flying weekend everyone!!

Sonny

propshaft

I am happy to report that Hobbico (TopFlite) came through with decent service.

I called the Hobbico Service number and spoke with a friendly guy who told me that they were aware of problems with the retracts and that they made changes to beef up the retracts. They expect new retracts to come in within the next week or so and they will send out a new pair to me when the new retracts come in. It looks like I will be ordering from them again after all. That was excellent service as far as I'm concerned.

I can't wait to get the plane back to where it belongs - in the air!

maddieone

My Feedback: (2)

OK, propshaft,

Care to share the guy's name and number for the rest of us.

jet22b

This is great news for the rest of the guys who have this problem with the stock retracts. I am thinking they had the same problem that Align Helicopter had with some bad ball links. Its to late for me because my Robarts 618 landing gear for the AT-6 will be here soon. The name Top Flite is very big in this hobby and I don't Hobbico would like to loose that!!

Fly hard and play safe everyone!!!

Sonny

Mikecam

Great to hear propshaft. Hobbico came thru for me on my trainer as they should. For everyone else it is time to email or call. Let us know how it turns out. Enough calls and even Hobbico will realize they have a problem and do what it takes to fix it.

propshaft

The number to call if you have experienced a similar retract problem is (217)398-0007. It takes you through a menu where you should choose the option for questions related to airplanes. Unfortunately I did not write down the service reps name.

Good luck and happy flying!

maddieone

My Feedback: (2)

The Email route doesn't get it, apparently the voice route gets results.

Thanks Propshaft

cstevenpeterson

My Feedback: (21)

I have not assembled my AT-6 yet, but I emailed both Tower and Top flight to get the new set prior to my eventual maiden flight. We'll see where that leads....

Steve

TeamMuir1

My Feedback: (-1)

Hello again eveyone.... if you been reading this thread I have been the victim of the Piss Poor landing gear as many others have.
Well here is my rant.... again.. if you all pick up the NEW JUNE issue of FLY bend over and kiss the ass of the manufacturer RC
read the write up they did on the Top flight AT-6.... he mentions in the article multiple times how beefy the landing gear are..
and how well it handled even ther rough grass runway at his field.. YOU KNOW.. I am so TIRED of this crap..... these magazines just love to KISS THE ASS of the manufacturer that gives them a NEW ARF.... now I doent know if thats entirely true... but I will
be willing to bet that the manufacturer gives them that ARF... so its a scratch my back and I will scratch yours kinda DEAL.
WHAT kind of article can be held at value for what it is if all they are going to do is TALK all about the GOOD of the ARF.... and not the BAD.....
ALL I CAN SAY IS THANK YOU RCUNIVERSE....... at least here we can talk first hand of our experiances.... to bad though
that WE HAVE TO BUY THE SHODDY PRODUCT with our own HARD EARNED MONEY to find out these problems....
THIS ARF IS NO GOLD..... lmao..... as in the article he mentioned that it was a GOLD EDITION... and it should be.
it just makes me MAD to the point that I will be WRITTING FLY RC as well.... just to make myself feel better.....
about the issue of making every review sound as if its the best PLANE They ever had........ lmao......
JUST stick with the FACTS... and not your personal OPIONION.. because his opinion was not BIAS... it was bent by a NEW ARF
they recieve....... so of course.. if I SENT YOU A PLANE would you write me a GREAT REVIEW?
JUST AS I THOUGHT... SURE YOU WOULD>>>>> HELL YOUR ARF IS IN THE MAIL>>>>
Thanks Guys.. for hearing me out on this.. and please lets hear from everyone else on this matter......
Ron

maddieone

My Feedback: (2)

I personally know of a reviewer that wrote up a glowing review on a plane especially touting its flying characteristics. And guess what, HE NEVER FLEW THE PLANE and yes he did receive the whole package gratis. I myself will read mag reviews just to see how the plane is constructed and then read the user reviews we have here in RCU in order to make a buy decision. Unfortunately I had a cranial flatuation and bought the plane based on the "MAG" review rather than my normal procedure

cfossa

My Feedback: (5)

Sonny and Propshaft,

Thanks for the details on the retracts and failures. I'm not sure I want to go with air retracts, but it sounds like I definitley need to swap out the stock ones.

Carl

jet22b

Carl;

This is what good about this forum!! We can come together and talk about the likes and dislikes on ARF, kits and engines. I find people will give a true view about the good and bad of a ARF that we all have or had. I went with this ARF because I have flown alot of Top Flite airplanes over the 20 plus years I have been in this hobby. I hope the Robarts will be in next week so I can find out how hard the retract will be to install in the Texan wings. I will post pictures of the mod and will tell how it was done. Some people may not want to go with air retracts, but, if you do I will show you how I did it.

Carl, and everyone, have a great flying weekend!!!

Sonny

c550

My Feedback: (16)

I have had a graet time with my T-6. I have had a mid air and got great support from Topflight with the replacement parts I needed. I also had gear problems. I noticed that one gear had some hairline cracks and the other has about to fall apart. Top Flight sent new gear out at their expense. I think they stand behind their product, at least much better then a lot of other importers. They recognize the problem with the retracts and seem to be trying to fix it. I hope they do and continue to bring us more cool stuff to fly.

Regards,

Dave

jet22b

Hi Everyone;

Well today was not a flying day!! Lots of wind and rain here in the great northwest. So I install the air control valve for the Robart Landing Gear for the Top Flite AT-6 Texan.
As you can see in the pictures, this step was easy. I found a small plywood block and drill a hole using a 11/32 drill bit to mount the control valve. I then remove enough covering so I could have a good base for 6 min epoxy. Remember to use a standard servo for the control valve. Hook everything up and it work so sweet. Also remember to adjust your gear travel. Don't take much to move the control valve. More pictures to come after the main gear come in!!
Any question, feel free to ask!!!

Sonny