PylonWorld

The Viper 500 ARF is generally well built.

However, it has 8-32 blind mounting nuts in the wing hold down blocks. And they supply 8-32 flat head steel screws for holding the wing down.

We are getting more and more newcomers to pylon, or at least pylon type planes. And it is great that they getting into it. Many of these people may not have experienced pylon racers to help them prep a plane. And the Viper 500 is such an easy ARF to assemble that they can do it themselves. If you can put any ARF trainer together, you can put a Viper together per the instructions.

Hopefully Great Planes will fix this in the next revision.

The only reason I used the supplied bolts was because the plane was supposedly well tested. And the 8-32 blind nut size does not allow you to just take them out and re-tap for 1/4-20. You either have to: plug the hole, re-drill, and tap ... replace the 8-32 blind nuts with 1/4-20 blind nuts ... or put a peice of hardwood where the blind nut resided (and possibly still plug the hole).

You are correct ... almost anybody in racing knows that most racers use 1/4-20 nylon bolts, myself included. In fact, I got my Viper 500 on a Thursday afternoon, and the following Monday I was on the phone with the designer discussing the danger of the metal bolts.

I think we need to be VERY proactive in advising club mates, friends, etc to the danger of the metal bolts. That's why I pinned this warning message to the top of this forum.