I'm building a Patrol at my home in Farmersville. That's not too far from Denton, if you want to come see what the kit looks like. PM me if you want to visit, and we'll work out a time.
The Patrol I'm building (from Mark Goldberg's "Quick Build" kit) has doors on both sides. There is a very reasonable up-charge for the factory to make the changes to the QB kit. While I have no plans to fly my Patrol on floats, I really like the option of flying with both windows open here in our lovely DFW heat!
I originally thought it would be cool to scratch-build. I started to re-think that idea after looking at the plans and seeing how much complex welding would be required. I took a couple of welding classes, and though the instructor said "Yeah, I'd fly with those welds," they didn't look anywhere near good enough to me... Then I got a look at the welds the factory guys in Mexico do... Absolutely beautiful beads on every single weld. I made a rough estimate of how long it would take me to weld up the fuselage – not counting any "re-work" to fix my errors – and then looked at what Mark charges for the QB fuselage. Based on my analysis, it seemed like a real bargain on cost, and a real enhancement in terms of safety and trusting the welds. The fact that it comes to you primed and ready to go is just icing on the cake. Highly recommended!
The QB wing kit is still sitting in the crate in my garage. I hoped to have that unpacked this summer, but life got in the way (plantar fasciitis, followed by a torn rotator cuff – both make it impossible to do much kit building).
