I am just getting into ARFs and would like to know what would be the best way to beef them up? Just bought a CG Falcon 56 MkII. It is beautifully constructed, but want to make it stronger...a little more solid. I'm not super concerned about weight.
Any recommendations?

Thanks, pswan

look for joints with gaps where glue should be, you can fill in the gap with ca or epoxy, if you u really wanna beef it you could also use triangle stock, especially around the motor box

+1 for beefing up firewall/motorbox on ALL arfs.

A few other areas to look out for:

- Landing gear.

You can often easily "double" the existing landing gear mounting plate by making a similiar lite ply piece of wood with holes and epoxying it in place over the existing stock.

If blind nuts are already in place and are well secured you can make a large enough set of holes in the new wood ro clear the blind nuts, while still re-inforcing the surrounding areas.

When you do all of this, you can also add triangle stock and/or flat stock to beef up the points where the retaining plate joins the fuse.

Remember when you re-inforce you always want to act to spread the area of force out further.

So sometimes a small piece of wood which connects to and adjoins say the fuselage, can have a greater effect than just adding triangle stock.

- Tail Wheels

Tail Wheels included with ARFs are notoriously BAD.

Check out the tail wheel assemblies available as a spare part for the Skybolt and other planes... these are a whopping $1.98/ea and include an aluminum tailwheel with rubber tire. They prevent damage to your servos and can be both quickly installed and/or retrofitted to an existing plane.

- Wing mounts

Wing mounting screws are usually capped with small washers... GET RID OF THEM. Replace the small washer with fender washers instead.

These are quite large and again act to redistribute the force over a larger area.

- Tip Guards

I fit the majority of my planes with plastic tip guards. These are only a few dollars, but you will never fear having to abruptly turn the plane in case you need to bring it to a stop on the ground.

- Fuel Proofing

Mix up a GENEROUS amount of Epoxy/Acetone ( I prefer Alcohol ) fuel proofing and coat all of the wooden surfaces you can reach in your ARF.

This will act to strengthen the entire airframe.

The amount of added weight will be minimal.

- Elevator/Rudder

Add CF struts or if you do not want anything visible CF internal "stiffner" rods.

- Wheel pant mounts

You can purchase inexpensive Dubro ( and other ) wheel pant mount hardware that will eliminate or reduce busted fiberglass wheel pants.

- Wheels

Go larger whenever possible

- Covering ( Particularly "ChinaKote" asian covering ).

Top Flite clear coat is your friend.

Buff the existing covering with a new plastic dish pad.

Apply light even coats of TF clear coat to the covering ( omit any clear plastic canopies though! ).

Repeat several times, let dry 48 hours then buff with the pad again.


Fuel will no longer attack the trim edges or seems and your covering will seem to last forever.



Of course there are MANY more things to do...

Cowl & canopy mounting screws ( replace, blind nuts and cap screws with fuel tubing work MUCH better ), pushrods. clevises, etc., etc. etc.

Thanks for the info OP, very good stuff to know.