I'll preface this by saying I've built 3 different planes from the company which sells this kit and contend that they are VERY well designed. I've made modifications to two of them, but they were all modifications which allowed for more modern electronics. The third one needed absolutely no changes, and after over 125 flights I still wouldn't change anything on it.
The biggest problem with the Hemorrhoid is that the builder deviated from the original plan in areas that shouldn't have been changed. This kit is designed to be relatively light weight and therefore doesn't need to be over-built (build to fly, not to crash). The tail surfaces were created by the kit designer to be lightly built and hinged with tape, but regular hinges were installed which drastically weakened the control surfaces to the point it would not have survived a single flight, so they needed to be re-built. This also added a little weight far back from the CoG. The ailerons should be simple flat sheet but are either built-up or solid aileron stock mounted by pin-style hinges instead of tape, creating more weight and complexity. The aileron servo installation was also not executed well, and I found one of the servos completely loose in the wing. The builder tried installing them in a way that looks better instead of how it was designed to work. I understand the thinking, but it just wasn't a good idea. The wing mounting was also a problem and some additional work was needed to make sure the wings wouldn't break from the fuselage during flight. That could have been an exciting (short) flight...!
This may come back to haunt him, but the suggestion to my dad was to completely strip the plane and fix any problems before re-covering. He didn't want to go that far and elected to just fix what he could find instead. It's his plane, and his decision. But he's having me do the maiden. :black_eyed: Completely stripping the plane is extra work, but you know exactly what you're working with when you do that. I'm currently doing that to a 1/4 scale J-3 Cub, and found plenty of issues that needed addressing.
On the good side, the builder did a very nice job coming up with the design on the covering - it was more complex than I'd normally do and turned out well. The overall construction was clean as well.
