Converting your Avistar from a banded system to a bolt down system is not as easy as it sounds. First, is your version a straight Avistar or is it an Avistar Select? The difference is that the original Avistar used a plywood wing joiner to hold the wing halves together while the Avistar Select uses a metal rod for this purpose. To do this job you MUST have plywood or hardwood pieces epoxied to both the rear of the leading edge of the wing and at the main spar. The plywood wing joiner in the original Avistar can be used for this purpose meaning you would only have to cut into the wing sheeting at the leading edge. If you have the Avistar Select, you would have to remove sheeting at the leading edge in order to insert your hardwood piece as well as at the main spar. Then you would need to drill a 1/4 or 5/16 hole through the leading edge, through the hardwood piece you just glued to the back of the leading edge and into the plywood or hardwood piece you just installed at the main spar. Now you have to epoxy a hardwood dowel through the leading edge hole and through the hole in the piece at the spar. This is all necessary because there will be times when several times the weight of your plane will be hanging on that dowel and you don't want it to rip out of the wing. If installed through only balsa, it would eventually rip through the wing. This is all assuming that the wing sits low enough in its wing saddle for that dowel to go into a hole you are going to drill in the former just in front of the wing. In other words, the front of your wing must butt up against a plywood former that extends upwards past the center of the leading edge or this job becomes almost impossible.

This is just for the leading edge of the wing. Now you have to deal with the trailing edge of the wing. Is the section of the trailing edge that is inside the fuselage solid or is it hollow? If solid, you can drill through it and run you bolts, no problem. If it is hollow, you must remove some wood, either top or bottom, insert some balsa wedges, and replace the sheeting. This being done, now you have to epoxy some hardwood blocks inside the fuselage and the trailing edge. These have to clear your torque rods and aileron push rods. In other words, you will have only an inch or so (probably less) space between your aileron push rods and the inside of the fuselage to place your hardwood blocks. Once you get the hardwood blocks glued into the fuselage and make sure they clear the aileron push rods, you will have to drill down through the trailing edge of the wing and through the hardwood blocks you just installed. Once these holes are drilled you must thread them with a tap. These will probably be 1/4 inch bolts, so drill with a 1/4 inch drill bit. Here, you must keep in mind that in order for the bolts to snug up flat against the wing, the holes will have to be drilled at the same angle as the trailing edge. You will have to drill at a 90 degree angle to the trailing edge, not straight down. If you were to drill straight down, when you thread the bolts in they would snug up with the front of the bolt digging into the wing and the back of the bolt standing clear of the wing. Not good. OK, you have your holes drilled and tapped. Now harden the holes with CA. That is, just apply a couple drops of CA in several places around the holes and let it run down into the threads you just tapped into the hardwood blocks. This will tend to keep the threads from stripping out when you run the bolts in unless you really crank down on them. It is not necessary to get them more than just reasonably snug to keep that wing down. Remember that when you harden these threads with CA, let them sit for an hour or so to cure before running your bolts in. If you run your bolts in before the CA cures completely, you will never get them out. And CA in the open like that does not cure instantly.

Except for the CA you used to harden the threads in the hardwood blocks, everything else is 30 to 45 minute epoxy. CA won't stand the vibration, aliphatic resins will not penetrate the hardwood pieces well enough, Gorilla Glue expands and pushes the pieces apart. Only epoxy is effective when you are going to have several times the weight of the plane depending on the glue joints.

Like many conversions and modifications on these airplanes, this one can be done, but it ain't easy. An experienced builder will know immediately what I am talking about. Only you know if you are capable of doing this mod. If you are, you might want to think about removing that servo in the center of the wing, removing those push rods, cutting off the torque rods where they make that last 90 degree bend inside the fuselage, and installing a servo in each wing half directly in front of the horn. You have a semi symetrical wing, a bolt on wing and servos for each aileron now. This would be a fun performer for a long time.