Hi rdhot, The avistar is a good plane, I have the ARF with the ply
joiner, If you give it a good coat of 30min epoxy and let set the
whole 24hrs. + you should have no problem with the wing.. I
also added some fiberglass 2"w to my wing halfs and never had
a problem and I did put it through it's paces. I also thought of
removing the use of rubber bands.. But I'm glad I did not do it,
The use of the rubber bands allow for some give to the wing in
case of those " I didn't mean to do that moments" Where as the
screwed on's will not, And yes the screws are suppost to break..
And they will, but most of the time it'll take something else along
with it... I'd say keep the rubber... Just put "enough" on. I used
up to 10 on each side, depending on what I was going to try..
after a day or two of flying I would put the used rubbers in a
baggie filled with corn starch and use a new set for my next
flight, then reuse the ones in the bag once my supply got low..
Throw out the stretched ones, and don't use them for more
than 4-5 flights.. Their pretty cheap, and work well..
Good luck and have fun!!