Rick Allison

We visited the question of building models versus buying same awhile back, and examined the philosophical angles, the moral dilemma, the practical side, the cost/benefit ratio, etc. Still, however we acquire a model, there is one thing almost all of us must do: Buy it or build it, we still have to put our equipment in it, and set it up properly Equipment installation and setup is the second-most-critical building step in determining how well a finished model performs, after fuselage/surface alignment and trammeling. Every servo hookup made; every cable run rigged; every control horn, mount or support/retainer installed, is flight-critical. All of it should be as perfect as you can make it, because even a little mistake or miscalculation in this area can kill your pride-and-joy. Even small, nonfatal miscues, which are much more common, may have an effect entirely out-of-proportion to their perceived size. Every spring, I'm called on to help trim unruly models at the local practice field. I often find that tiny setup errors are the only difference between an "off the board" keeper and an unfairly-labeled "dog." When these "minor" items are pointed out to the owner as the source of the difficulty, the usual reaction is disbelief that something so insignificant could cause so much grief.