Looking to get in the air
Hi all,
About 2 years ago, I was given by a friend an old style Avistar (red and white mono), with an O.S. .40FP and an old Futaba system. The engine and radio were junk (replaced the engine with a .46LA and the radio with a Futaba 4YF, then a Hitec Eclipse), but the airframe seemed fairly solid. Aside from a few small holes in the the wing, which I patched with stick-on Ultrakote, the airplane seemed to be in relatively good shape. However, a more through inspection revealed a couple of glaring problems. The tail end of the fuse (about 2 inches in front of the vertical stab) has a crack in the wood about 3 inches long, allowing the tail to twist and bend quite a bit, and I'm fairly sure it wouldn't hold up in flight. A bit of the wood in the tail was fuel soaked (for several years, apparently). The leading edge of the right-corner of the horizontal stab fell completely off due to this. Even without these problems, I'm hesitant to put a new engine and radio system into an older plane that sat in someone else's attic for at least 5 years, and my findings only magnify these fears. So basically, my question is this: Should I attempt to repair this plane and fly it, or put the radio gear and engine into a new airframe?
Also - Which type of epoxy is best used for constructing planes, and where is it readily availible? (i.e. can I use the kind they sell at Wal-Mart)
Thanks,
-Sam