I agree, it would also be nice if there were industry standards and true standardized bench mark testing instead of the system or lack there of that currently exists. A good example of this is the LIPO battery market and "C" ratings. Our hobby has came a long way in the last twenty years but, we still have plenty of room for improvement. Each of us has a vote, every time you spend your hard earned cash you are voting. If we as a community vote for quality products, excellent service and insist on knowledgeable support we be will be rewarded with longer lasting, better performing, high quality products. Simple economics will take care of those products, vendors and companies that don't meet the standard but, we as a community have to do our part and stop supporting those businesses / vendors that copy or clone products as we are only hurting our hobby. Copying and cloning kills innovation, drives up prices and reduces quality. There are plenty of examples of cloning and copying in our hobby; radios, ESCs, BECs, entire helicopters, connectors, motors. Not everyone realizes this but, if you happen to be the first person to send a canopy to one of the aftermarket canopy company's for that new "hot" paint job you are contributing to copying and cloning because the first thing they do is make a mold of your canopy. A week later they are producing canopies for the E5. If you a buy a canopy from one of these companies it's the same story. They didn't design it, they copied it. Intentional or unintentional the end result is the same, someone else did the work they take the profits.
Twenty years ago manufactures could get away with selling products that didn't perform as advertised or that were of poor quality because word spread slowly but, today we have a forum and we can tell the whole world when we are unhappy, this is both good and bad. On the up side consumers are better informed (those who care to research anyway) and a manufacturer is less likely to get away with selling products that don't preform as advertised. Vendors who constantly fail to meet service expectations and or obligations are not likely to be in business long. The down side is that when a person uses a product for a purpose for which it is ill suited because of ignorance, lack of experience or because the correct solution is priced out of reach and then posts a negative review when the product doesn't meet his or her expectations. We have all seen negative post or comments and were immediately aware that the author had no idea what he or she was talking about. The phenomenon that is truly frustrating to me is when others propagate this misinformation as the truth with no first hand knowledge of the facts and or the product. Even worse are the people with agendas, who for their own personal gain, propagate lies and misinformation intentionally. Along with the ability to tell the world when a problem exists with a product or service comes the responsibility to examine the facts or understand the circumstances of a event or problem. In the past few weeks the Synergy community nearly lost a well respected, much valued vendor and industry innovator due the the postings and comments of a few people outside this forum. Before posting a negative comment lets all make sure we understand the truth and use some basic problem solving skills. We can improve this hobby for ourselves and future generations by casting our votes for quality products and supporting those who support us. Our combined effect is greater than the sum of our individual efforts, we are Synergy!
Rich
