I have been researching the Avistar on the internet and I see it is a .40......does this mean that a .46 engine will still fit in the plane or not?

.46 should fit just fine. Might be a bit much for it, though, considering an LA.40 flies it very well.


Andy

I have seen lots of trainers the same size online and they have .46's..I as just not sure about the .46
WHy would the .46 be to much for it? would it be to fast and hard to control?

I am currently flying an Avistar with a Thunder Tiger Pro .46. turning an APC 11x5 prop. It's a great match for that plane and the price is very attractive too!
It only flies as fast as you push the throttle. I fly comfortably at half-throttle, but have instant power for maneuvers.

Thanks alot. I was thinking of getting the Avistar with the TT pro.46 too..I just want to be easy to control so I do not crash it as soon as I get it even though I will be having an instructer help me.
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Flyn' High, Real High

I have 2 Avistar's, one with an OS LA .40 and the other with a TT Pro .46. Both engines do well, but I can tell you that you will have a lot better experience with the TT .46. It's an excellent model and with the .46 you won't be sorry, and as krossk says above, it will fly very well at half throttle but give you all the power you need.

T.

Thanks Sawyer. Cool Deal
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Flyn' High, Real High

I have an Avistar with an OS 46FX and it is an absolute honey with this engine. I usually fly it with 1/2 throttle and that gives me plenty of power and speed to do the regular Newbie things. I've been so impressed with this engine for it's size that I got another one for another Avistar I turned into a taildragger. I'll be sticking with the .46FX's for a while, as long as I can find them. You can't beat the cost effectiveness with fuel and the aircraft size.

As an experiment, I also got a Magnum XLS .46 (looks exactly like the OS) and put it on my Bipe, and it also does a great job of hauling the A/C around the field.

The only time I have seen something with a .40LA (Hobbico Superstar), it didn't seem to want to fly...slow as a dog on takeoff and just didn't seem like it wanted to run..........

A .46 on an Avistar? Go for it! You won't be dissappointed!

Thanks for the info..Now all I need is money. Which is coming really soon!!!!!!!!
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Flyn' High, Real High

I was talking to a guy at the LHS today about putting at TT Pro .46 in an Avistar today. He said that I would need to put weight in back of the plane because of the weight of the TT .46 in the from. Do any of you other guys have to do that?
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Flyn' High, Real High

Probably will need to add some weight to the tail as i hear TT's are pretty heavy.

John

Will that make the plane harder to fly by adding more weight to it?
Trying to figure all this stuff out before I go buying.
Thanks

No thats just to balance it, if you dont, THEN it will be hard to fly. You cant go wrong, go out and buy. Also make sure you pick up some fiberglass cloth and some 20min epoxy, for glassing the wing joint.

John

It will be easier to fly with more power!

Will there be instructions in the books on how to add weight and stuff or should I find out from some guys at a local air field?
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Flyn' High, Real High

I run an Enya .45 in my Avistar and LOVE IT! Like the others have said, you can fly around @ 1/2 throttle and have no problems at all handling it if you're just learning. The nice part about the .45 is that when you get comfortable with the plane, you can open that baby up and go like h*ll!!! I use a paved strip to take off and land on and only need about 1/2 to 3/4 throttle to get off the ground.On the other hand, my father in law has an avistar w/ a .40 in it and it's pretty weak taking off on the grass. The speed and performance once in the air is respectable, but he has a heck of a time getting off the ground if the grass is a little long. I on the other hand don't have that problem. So get the .45. You won't be dissapointed. By the way, I didn't need to add any weight to my tail.

THanks alot Sam's Dad

I had the same issues with my Avistar. Flew it with the OS40LA (flies fine, but not peppy off the runway). Swapped out the 40La for a Magnum 46XLS. Big difference, but much heavier. Ended up moving the battery back behind the servo tray to get the balance right. It'll still fly ok with the 46 on the nose and the battery in the same place as with the 40LA, but it'll feel sluggish getting off the ground and won't do any really fast maneuvers. One of the joys of trainers is their large acceptable CG range. With the Magnum 46XLS on an 11x5 APC mine has great vertical, but is just short of hover.

Once you move the battery back to get the CG farther to the rear, you'll be surpised as this plane will do all kind of crazy stuff and recovery is a breeze. On mine if I fly about 1/2 throtle and pull full rudder and elevator, I get a great snap. If I hold the rudder/elevator and firewall the throttle as the snap starts, it goes from the snap into a short climbing inverted spin (3-5 revolutions) and then falls out into regular spin. If I go to 1/2 power or less as it falls out of the inverted spin, it does a nice spinning dive. To recover from any of these, all I have to do is go to half throttle or less and center the sticks and it settles down within 1 to 2 seconds in almost every case. Then you just pull out and do it again and again and again and again....

Side note, mine has a solid 1/4" metal rod connecting the wing halves and I use 8 rubber bands on a side, which I cut off at the end of the day. These maneuvers will likely spell instant death for an Avistar that doesn't have the wing center section reinforced in some way. Don't say i didn't warn ya! I lifted the wing leading edge one time pulling out of a power dive with 6 bands per side and it wasn't pretty, though I managed to get the plane down on the ground.

Duke

What would be a good way to reinforce the wing in the center so it does not snap in mid air?
And how to u check the center of gravity of the plane. Do you balance it on something?
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Flyn' High, Real High

Actually, the steel rod & a total of 14 bands works fine. I've never seen an Avistar snap its wings & I've seen & flown a lot of Avistars in wild aerobatics. If you want to toughen the wings, glue them (epoxy) together at the center (with the rod in there) & fiberglas the center section.

I used a 1 1/2 inch strip of fiberglass covered with 30 min epoxy diluted with a little rubbing alcohol, all the way around the center rib. This is on top of the 30 minute epoxy I used to put the wing together. I've crashed this thing a few times and so far have only had to repair the leading edge(besides replacing the fuselage, but that's another story). That will help a whole lot. Of course, you can always use a wider strip, but that's what I had handy.

I also had to add about 1 1/2 oz of sticky lead weights (the kind you get for pinewood derby cars) to the after section of the Fuse, just below the horizontal stab. I superglued them to the fuse after removing the monokote from the area. I didn't want to try and fool around with moving the battery pack back, but with my new kits, I try to do that first. It flys fine with this bit of weight.

To balance it, you can either buy a CG machine from your LHS or online, or if your handy, a piece of 1X4 two new pencils and the funny looking triangle erasures on them, and you can make your own, for next to nothing. You can find the plans in a book that's usually available at the library, written by the folks at MAN called "Radio Control Airplane Building Techniques. I got a lot of good information out of that.

Good luck!

Don

If you stick the battery in the rear fuse (~1''behind the servo tray) you won't need weights in the tail

Does the Wing have to glued in the center or do u guys just recommend that incase of a crash?

IMHO, a 46 is, without question, the best engine for an Avistar. Started out with a 40 in mine and switched to an OS 46 fx. Terrific! Also, the Avistar is an all time RC classic airplane, again IMHO.

For the Avistar I use a VERY VERY high tech TOP SECRET balancing method called.........

My fingertips!!!!!

Seriously, I measure the proper balance point on the wing and use some tape to mark the range. Then pick it up with your fingertips and you should be able to feel if your on the tape or not. Sicne its a trainer, the Avistar is not as sensitive as some other planes, and having the CG forward or back 1/4 inch will never even show up unless you are working with a very rearward CG (not recommended for first flights) and then small changes make large differences.

For best results, its best to epoxy the wing halves together. However, I don't have mine epoxied together as they have the steel rod. The only mod I did was to cut two plywood U shapes that I put in over the root ribs to make sure the halves couldn't slide out.

Note that not all Avistars have the steel rod as the wing joiner. If you don't have it, then I seriously recommend expoying the halves together and glassing the wing center. I just took the view that anything which folds this 1/4 steel rod in half is pretty much going to be a catastrophic event anyway you look at it.

Duke