We originally started this company in late-2006 and were importing unique aircraft from a number of manufacturers abroad. Some were similar to what others had for sale (P-51's and such), many were VERY unique. While we sold a good amount of this via the internet, and opened our doors to the general public in late 2007 for walk-in traffic. We found that we had a difficult time gaining the acceptance of many 'local' modelers due to the lack of a "name brand" on these items from suppliers the customers were used to seeing. Many customers made negative comments about our "china brands", yet little did they know that most all of our modelling supplies and kits ultimately come from Asia. Customers continuously commented that we should carry Hangar 9 "this" or Great Planes "that". So, we set about to spend a LOT of money and increase those types of kits in our showroom...to the tune of over $350,000 in inventory by early 2008.

Time moves forward, and so does our learning experience about the Hobby Shop business... We discovered that once we loaded up on the familiar brands that all other hobby shops carry, our walk-in sales switched from people coming in and buying our unique items (or complaining that they'd never heard of the brands!) to penny pinching us and pushing for us to undercut various other hobby shops and/or internet sales. Customers have literally left our shop, driven 25 miles away and buy the same thing for a few cents less, then return to our shop for help or support!!! So, stocking the same things as everyone else was a HUGE mistake for us, and nearly put us out of business in the fall of '08 and early '09 when the stock market crashed. Reflecting on our sales at that time, from late '06 through early '09, it became obvious that the "name brand" products nearly killed us. Even the primary suppliers sell on their own websites (Great Planes, Hobby Lobby, and Horizon Hobby) and undercut their own dealers from time to time, to the point it's almost impossible to make a decent living.

Time moves forward to mid-2010... During hard times, it's funny how the same customers who would complain and make cracks about the various dealers we were selling unique products from at one time, have suddenly switched their loyalties to such import companies as Banana Hobby, Nitro Models, Hobby King, etc.... all in the name of saving money. They'll even make comments about some sub-standard products or lack of good instructions (the very things we were being pounded about), but now will say "but that's OK, look at the great deal I'm getting". So...it was time for East R/C to make a shift in practice and go to what we believed in at the very beginning: to offer unique/different products at a good price, non-competitive items with the other area hobby suppliers.

In November of 2010, we flushed most of the "name brand" stuff out of our shop and closed the doors to walk in traffic. No more folks complaining about our prices being 2% higher than the other guy down the road or on the internet. No more "customers" constantly dragging the junk they bought elsewhere into our shop to burn up hours of paid labor at our expense, only to shop elsewhere every time they need a major purchase. Buying a bottle of glue does not make one a "good customer" when the major purchases that might actually help pay the bills are made from hongkong.com. As of this writing we manufacture 41 unique metal products and 3 aircraft. Two more aircrat are in the works, as are numerous products for us and others currently in manufacture for 3rd party vendors.

We are constantly designing, manufacturing, and adding new East R/C brand products to our inventory. We plan to use our machine shop to develop and improve the availability of unique accessories for the R/C Industry. If you are in the R/C industry and need a good contract CNC manufacturing shop for your production, don't hesitate to contact us for a job quote. We have secrecy agreements for this task, and will hold your products in the highest of confidence.

We are a full-time business with personnel for sales/shipping, business development, catalog/website maintenance, product R&D, and support.

We provide all of the tech support for our products at East R/C. What we're trying to say is, customers who buy products get 1st priority. We give them our all, and help them work through any and every question until they're satisfied.

From those of us at East R/C, we thank you for your interest in us and our products, as we continue to build a long-term relationship with the R/C community from business and machine shop in Zebulon NC !

Click here to visit East R/C.