RCU Forums - View Single Post - Advice fixing up my first plane...
View Single Post
Old 01-13-2008 | 10:54 PM
  #1  
cjmdjm
Member
 
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 45
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
From: Hanover, KS
Default Advice fixing up my first plane...

Last summer my uncle, who bought an rc plane but gave up on learning to fly it, gave it to me. But he crashed it and I need to fix it. This fall I practiced extensively on a simulator (realflight g3) and got pretty good at it, to where I could consistently do good landings, even in light crosswinds. Anyway, it is a hangar 9 alpha trainer, one of the older alpha trainers, before they came out with the new one with the 3 bladed prop and "evolution trainer power system." In its most recent crash, it went nearly head on into the ground. The spinner and propeller are broken, the front landing gear is bent back a bit, the two wing halves have split apart about a 1/4 inch, and the aelieron servo has broken off the bottom of the wing. The main things I need to know are what type of replacement spinner and propeller to buy and what type of glue to use to fix the split wing and detached aelieron servo. Are spinners universal? Will any spinner for a two blade prop and 40 size engine work? Do I need a specific brand or type of spinner for this airplane? The old one was white plastic, should I get another white plastic, or would a cool aluminum chrome one work? The prop that broke was a 10x6, which was I think plastic, though it could have been carbon fiber or nylon and I wouldnt have been able to tell the difference. I have two spare props my uncle gave me, one 11x6 plastic/nylon/carbon fiber, and one 10x6 wooden. Which one should I use, or should I order a 10x6 plastic/nylon/carbon or some other size that would work even better? Lastly, what type of glue do I use to fix the split wing halves and the detached aelieron servo? The aelieron servo is still glued to a chunk of wood that broke off of the bottom of the wing, so I need to glue that chunk of wood (presumably balsa) back onto the rest of the wing. Wood glue? Super glue? Epoxy? Elmers glue? And with the bent front landing gear, Im pretty sure I can just bend it back with a pliers. The starter motor I have hooks onto the spinner, thus preventing me from testing the engine until I get a new spinner. Is there any way I could test the engine before I spend money on a new spinner? I would just ask the guy at the local hobby shop all this stuff, but there is no local hobby shop, I would have to drive several hours, so I plan to order all the parts from the internet and need to know exactly what type and brand of spinner, prop, and glue to order. Do you guyz think its hopeless, should I just buy a new ARF plane and take the engine and radio off this one? Thanks for your time, sorry for rambling on so long.