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Old 10-16-2004 | 11:04 PM
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DTB
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From: Clermont, FL
Default RE: Funtana 90 must do modifications

ORIGINAL: DiabloKid

DTB

you mentioned you did some work on the wing to mod it, what exactly did you do to beef it up? I know wing failures are still happening! [&o]
To keep it short DiabloKid, it was mainly regluing joints and making sure that the servo trays were securely attached to the ribs. I used thinned epoxy and thin CA. I had a few cracked ribs that I resecured. Reglued the joints from the LE to the TE. Some here again may feel this wasn't needed, but only I saw my wing while building and now I feel more secure about the construction. The wing is a lot stronger than it was originally and this didn't add too much weight because excess glue was not applied.

These planes are designed light for their size and corners were cut to save weight for better 3D performace, but this IMO can cause some structural weakness. I fly my Funtana pretty hard, flipping, flopping, rolling, parachutes, walls, inverted walls, blenders, upright flat spins, knife edges, inside and outside loops, rolling circles, etc... The wings takes a lot of abuse from me, but that is my flying style and I have/had to place attention to where it would be needed. Bentgear can confirm my flying style.

I really believe a lot of the wing failures are due to cracked ribs that were overlook or no attention was placed toward it, but many failures are do to pilot error of not having proper mechanical advantage or using sub-standard servos plus an host of other reasons. These ARF's and any other ARF IMO needs to be inspected for your approval. Most ARF's don't pass my qualifications so special attention has to be done in certain areas for me to have a piece of mind about the construction. ARF (Almost to fly). I am not trying to be funny, but I take that literally. The key word I focus on is the word "ALMOST". I think if attention is placed in key areas, then you should be able to strengthen the structure and still keep the weight down. Again, with all the mods I have done, it still only weights 8.67lbs ready to fly before being fueled up.