Originally posted by plazwythsquirel
Would converting my superstar be more expensive then just buying a new one?
Shouldn't be. The landing gear will cost you less than $15 for the wheels, dural landing gear, axle shafts, and either some light ply or basswood to reinforce the mounting location. Cut the ribs off the middle of the wing where they're joined. Make new center ribs outta balsa ($2) and glue them in perpendicular. Join the wings together with no dihedral by epoxying them together on a flat surface. Remove a 2 inch slice outta the bottom covering in the center of the wing and reinforce with glass and epoxy. Use some self adhesive trim on the top of the wing. Run a $.50 pushrod for tailwheel control (Dubro tail wheel bracket is $3, 1 inch tailwheel is $2).
Total cost should be under $25 for all the parts needed for the conversion. Will make the plane much more interesting to fly (no dihedral means significantly less self correcting characteristics, yet the flat bottom wing should still give lots of lift so you can still float it in on landings), and give you taildragger experience. You can also make the plane even more interesting by making the wings shorter (taking it in 1/2 -1 rib on each half), installing 2 aileron servos, installing flaps (using either 1 servo for standard flaps or 2 for quad flaps) and fabricating larger control surfaces. As I've learned Kit/ARFbashing is only limited by your imagination.