Here's my experience with NitroPlanes....

[vegaebh]

The first Starmax/Nitro plane I had (F5E) I ordered from Hobby Lobby.   I tested the motor before assembly and the rotor blew up at 1/4 throttle.  I then called Hobby Lobby and asked them why they had included an extra rotor/cone in the box.  They told me that the rotors we're known to come apart and that was the reason.  I sent the plane back to Hobby Lobby for a refund.

Then I ordered a FA-18 from Nitro.  Again the rotor disentigrated at 1/4 throttle.  John did eventually answer and sent me another rotor and rotor adapter.  I installed it and it seems to run fine.  I haven't assembled it yet.  In the mean time I order 3 more 64 mm Jets.  The Phantom, Mirage and F-15. 

I assembled the F-15 and it flies fine.  A bit slower than I expected but it flys well.  I got about 3 flights on it and so far the 64mm fan is still in one piece.

I then assembled the Mirage.  After first breaking the fan/motor in before assembly I went to the field and flew it.  After trimming out the Mirage I throttled up and the plane flew great for about 30 seconds.  Then the fan lost every blade.  The blades came thru the sides and took a lot of foam with it.  i posted pics and still as of yet haven't heard from John.

I'm in the process of assembling the Phantom.  As soon as the weather cooperates I'm going to go out and see how it flies and holds up.

Not sure about the order but here's some other experiences. 

1) I've received a dead Tx/Rx which John replaced for another 1300 mAh lipo.  No problem with that.  I consider it an even exchange since I would never consider using the included Exceed Radio.

2) I used an included lipo charger.  The charger started smoking and almost started a fire.  Luckly I was in the same room and manged to pull the 12v plug before it burst into flames.  Again after a couple of days John answered the post and sent me another charger that worked.

Even though these ARF's are cheap I still expect them to fly as advertised and stay in one piece.  (Assuming that I don't plant the plane).  My guess is that most of these planes don't make it past the first flight.  Two days ago another club member had a grey FA-18.  He took off and lost the plane witin seconds of leaving the ground.  Even though the box says "Easy to learn for beginner" DON'T believe it.  I've been flying for 39 years and it's NOT a beginner airplane.  Assuming that you have the experience to control it you need to keep it in close inorder to see it.  If you don't and it gets out too far (maybe 200 yards or so depending on your eyesight) your going to lose sight of it.  When I flew my grey F15 for the first time I was busy trimming it and it got out about 300 yards or so..  All I could see was a grey dot which appeared to be getting smaller.  I then turned and the grey dot started getting larger.  As soon as I got home I got out the international orange duct tape and started decorating the plane...

3) Customer support or the lack of it....  John...   You can't just ignore the problems and hope that they will go away...  I can assure you they won't... 

[Gronon]

Sounds like John did right by replacing the faulty parts.  John didn't make these things, he just sells em.  The messages they stick on the boxes and the descriptions on the site are from the manufacturer.  That being said I think he should take your feedback and amend the site to inform future pilots that this thing is indeed not for training.

I've seen a lot of slow customer service hobby sites out there and they are usually the ones that have nice cheap merchandise.  So, they have to cut corners somewhere to make up for it.  I have learned to avoid these sites like the plague (hobby - estore.com, complete heli.com).  Nitroplanes is owned by the same people that bring us xheli and personally I like the merchandise from XHeli.  Though, I have not yet ordered anything from their nitroplanes site. I don't count on speedy replies to my requests when I order from them so I always have a backup plan (a 2nd flight worthy bird!).

Anyway, I hope all your problems get fixed up for good and get in some happy flying!

[Moonrexx]

I have not had any luck with Support calling me back or myself getting a hold of them. I have purchased the  4 Channel Warbird F4U Corsair RTF RC Ready to Fly Electric Airplane and it all seems to have been put together correctly, but when I try to fly it it basically goes in a circle, it pulls to the left - does not move straight for very long, and never takes off- just nose dives or tips over. Any suggestions? I am so frustrated - this was suppose to be an easy plane that said it was easy to fly. How do you actually get it up in the air from land? I am afraid to do it by hand because I dont want it to crash to the ground.

So far not happy with Nitro Plane experience.. esp with Support.
Thanks!

[stu]

Don't know the rule for plane brushless motors but in the car world every motor I've bought has had a note warning never rev the thing without having the drive train connected or risk having the rotor come flying apart.

[JugMan]

I've never had anything but surprisingly good service from Nitro Planes. And what's even weirder? The stuff I get from them arrives quickly, free shipping,  and it's always better than I expected it to be. Es La Verdad. No I don't work for Nitro Planes. Yes you are expected to know what you are doing with an R/C plane/boat/car/heli. As they all say in the instruction books on Page one... "This is not a toy."   
     Not a toy      Not a Toy          Not a Toy     Not a Toy     Not a Toy          Not a Toy       Not a Toy      Not a Toy           Not a Toy          not a Toy       Not a Toy       Not a Toy       Not a Toy        No Toy Amigo     

[Wingnut79]

  Nitroplanes.... I just got my first, and I have to say for what I paid, I'm extremely satisfied. I have several issues with the plane I bought, but that's a manufacturer issue not the distributors negligence. Honestly, do you really expect John to build up, tune and trim EVERY PLANE he sells? If so, You'd better throw him an extra benjamin for the trouble... As the saying goes, yo get what you pay for. My BRUSHED A-10 Warthog came in, first thing I noticed when testing the electronics was the airloin servo was faulty. It took me all day to get in contact with anyone (the online chat is a joke at the moment, but it IS the holidays...), but a new servo is being shipped out, no issue there. The plane came with a 9.6V Hi MH battery and a 12V charger. I'm still trying to figure THAT out... I sent an email and got a response that I would receive a phone call within the next 2 business days to discuss the problem. I took the plane out in the front for a taxi test on the sidewalk to see what all the fuss was about the plane having no power, and one of the wheels broke off the wing when it hit a concrete seam. Again, you get what you pay for. I was going to fly the plane by hand launching anyways. Even with plastic static models, you end up having to trim and modify half the pieces to get them to fit, why should a flying model be any different? These are FLYING AIRCRAFT, not snap-together Legos hurled out of a slingshot. They have to be tuned and balanced, adjusted and tweaked to get the performance they are capable of... You don't buy shoes with the shoestrings already laced up and tied to fit your feet, do you? Ready To Fly means you don't have to buy any more equipment, NOT that it's airworthy the moment UPS drops the box on your porch. If you absolutely MUST have something to complain about, go stand in line at the D.M.V. in Los Angeles! And before you slander their customer service, try returning a defective product purchased off  from Hong Kong.... Been there, done that.
 As for all the moaning and complaining about how the brushed A-10 won't fly with it's stock configuration-- look on Youtube for Banannaboy. He managed to get one airborn, and he's a kid!
  As for my A-10-- I'm swapping the servos from the airloin and the front landing gear around until the replacement servo comes in. You don't need wheels in the air!
Wingnut79

[VROOM]

Well said Wingnut79.

[wayne639]

I bought the green Brushless A10 from Nitroplanes at the AMA show from Tony. I did have some construction problems including the front landing gear wire was not long enough and also the servo horn was not long enough to attached to wire. I did my own workarounds to fix that. I did have a defective 20A brushless ESC where it would beep continously without engaging. The other ESC was fine. I tried calling their support phone number but was on hold for 15 min. and so hung up. I then talked to Sam online. He initially said I'd have to drive to their store to have it replaced. My thought was "that's rediculous that I'd have to drive there to have it replaced". I said "What if I'm from another state, you can't expect me to fly there". Then I said why can't I send in defective ESC to have it replaced. That's when he finally agreed. I don't mind having to fix things like out of alignment landing gear but if the electronic is defective, I would normally expect a company to send me replacement unit without such hassles. I thought from my reading that NitroPlanes had better support but I'm not sure anymore.

[grategenin]

I bought the green Brushless A10 from Nitroplanes at the AMA show from Tony. I did have some construction problems including the front landing gear wire was not long enough and also the servo horn was not long enough to attached to wire. I did my own workarounds to fix that. I did have a defective 20A brushless ESC where it would beep continously without engaging. The other ESC was fine. I tried calling their support phone number but was on hold for 15 min. and so hung up. I then talked to Sam online. He initially said I'd have to drive to their store to have it replaced. My thought was "that's rediculous that I'd have to drive there to have it replaced". I said "What if I'm from another state, you can't expect me to fly there". Then I said why can't I send in defective ESC to have it replaced. That's when he finally agreed. I don't mind having to fix things like out of alignment landing gear but if the electronic is defective, I would normally expect a company to send me replacement unit without such hassles. I thought from my reading that NitroPlanes had better support but I'm not sure anymore.

Hmm, that's strange. Back when I first started with rc cars. I had a faulty esc, and they sent me one, after I explained the problem. Wasn't as much hassle as you described

[wayne639]

I forgot to mention that I initially sent email to support about this defective ESC problem and they replied back saying that they'll get back to me within 1-2 days, which they never did. I may just buy the inexpensive Turnigy ESC from HC instead of sending this back. What a headache. From talking to Tony at the AMA show, I got a good impression about the support from nitroplanes but after this headache, I don't think i'll buy anything from them anymore.

[wayne639]

I finally got a hold of someone at Nitroplanes support and they said that they cannot support any products that were bought through the AMA show. Of course Tony never mentioned any of this when I purchased it. How can they sell stuff at the AMA Show and have no support at all for these products. That's totally rediculous. So I'm completely out of luck. I will never buy anything from Nitroplanes again. What a sham.

[robot]

I finally got a hold of someone at Nitroplanes support and they said that they cannot support any products that were bought through the AMA show. Of course Tony never mentioned any of this when I purchased it. How can they sell stuff at the AMA Show and have no support at all for these products. That's totally rediculous. So I'm completely out of luck. I will never buy anything from Nitroplanes again. What a sham.

Don't worry! Some people have no idea what is going on but Nitroplanes stand by 100% of everything they sell.  Please direct your concern to Andy here: http://www.rcdiscuss.com/index.php/board,84.0.html

He'll take care of you!!! 

[wayne639]

I'm done fighting Nitroplanes. I'm gonna order two 25A turnigy ESC from HC to replace the defective ESC. It just take a while for shipping from overseas. Other than the ESC problem, everything is good about the plane. I do like the paint job on the A10, down to the face with teeth painted on front nose of plane. I'll be switching out the stock recv for spektrum rx. My friend who has the GWS A-10 said he had alot of glitching using hitec Electron 6 before switching to Spektrum rx. I guess it's because there's alot of interference from 2 motors.