ORIGINAL: phread59
Suggestion 1- sport (lower dihedral) wing all the way. As for bands/bolts my preferences is bolts. I hate bands. But being as you are building a kit why not both. Set it up when you build it for bolts. The only difference is the dowels for the bands. Lightly glue the front dowel in. If after a bit you find the confidence. And feel like it you knock out the front dowel and have at the bolts. If the front dowels interfere with the front band dowel, relocate it some. The position is not very critical. As long as it is in the doubler and close to the original location allw ill be well. You get the cake and can eat it too (and get fat like me
).
Mark Shuman
I just built a PT-40 with the lower dihedral and bolt ons. I based my decision on advice from the local flyers. With the higher dihedral, the PT likes to tip over if you blow on it, and taxiing is much more difficult. Mine, on the other hand, made its maiden flight in about a 30Kt wind (not by me) and handled it superbly. Another word of advice for PT builders(IMHO)... no matter what you are told, do NOT reduce the washout that's designed into the wing. If you overfly the plane, as new pilots tend to do, and get into a stall situation, you want to lose lift at the root first. This will cause the plane to tend towards a nose down, wing level attitude. Tip stalls are not a good thing for the beginner to deal with.
I wouldn't worry too much about the planes ability to perform aerobatics. Remember that this plane is designed to help you learn the basics of flight. While it is able to perform a lot of advanced manuevers respectably,it isn't meant to do 3D. Get a good foundation and then move to another plane that's better suited for whatever type of flying you like to do.
As for the fuel tank question, Whatever fits will work. You might want to take a look at a Sullivan seamless tank to help with the fit. I have a 2oz that the instructions said could be reshaped by heating with a covering heat gun. I haven't tried it, so I don't know how well it works. I think that I would stay away from heating and bending the area near the cap to prevent deforming and causing a fuel leak though. Since C of G is set with the tank empty, and the weight difference would be minimal I would think that the only difference would be that the nose won't come up as quickly on takeoff due to the added fuel weight. I might be a little concerned about only getting 10 minutes on a tank of fuel. Are you running the engine too rich?