I'd like to lose the rubber bands on my Avistar, and convert it to use nylon wing bolts. I think the trailing edge will be easy, with a little reinforcement. Does anyone have any ideas on the leading edge? The wing sits rather high on the fuselage, and doesn't really sit in a 'saddle' (so to speak) like my 4* does. Could I also use nylon bolts on the leading edge? Any ideas??

thanks!!

YOU COULD CHANGE OT TO NYLON BOLTS BUT I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND IT. THE WING ON THAT PLANE IS BUILT LIGHT AND IN THE EVENT OF A CRASH I BELIEVE THAT THE RUBBER BANDS WOULD BE BEST. THE REASON FOR MY THOUGHTS ARE YOU DISPERSE THE HOLD DOWN OVER A GREATER AREA THEN WITH BOLTS. JMO.

It's a big job on that plane. You would have to reinforce the fuse where the leading edge of the wing rests with 1/4" ply. and then open the leading edge of the wing and built reinforcement into it to accept the wing bolts.
You would need rather large wing bolts for that wing and IMHO the rubber bands would offer you better wing protection in case you had a landing mishap.

I do nothing but give RC flight training and have a few trainers ready to go. All have been converted to bolts. If you are a half way decent pilot, you shouldn't have to worry about "landing" on the wing tips thereby causing a lot of damage.

How I made the conversion is to cut a 4 inch slice on both sides of the center ribs and glue pieces of 3/32 plywood on both sides of the center ribs. Then I glue a dowel between the plywood with balsa to take up any space left. After everything is lined up, I epoxied fiberglass cloth over the dowel conversion.

On the trailing edge, I used maple blocks drilled and tapped for 1/4-20 bolts. To line up the bolts on the wing, I screwed in a couple of cut off 1/4-20 bolts and pressed down the wing to make indentations where to drill the holes. I did reinforce where the dowel goes into the fuse. The rest, you might be able to figure out yourself.

Take care,
CCR
http://www.kites.org/rc_instructors

I would make one further sugestion for wing bolts I have started using 10/24 nylon bolts and have been completly successful I have them on a astro hog and hog bipe as well as several other designs that are not so well known Being somwhat smaller they will shear a little quicker than 1/4/20 and cause less damage while being adaquate for the most violent of manuvers. If they will stand up to my son's flying they will stand anything.