When I told the pilots at the field my Avistar had been shipped I got a ton of advise. "Motor mounts come loose, use locktite" "watch out the wheels fall off you need to..." Epoxy the wing dowels in, don't use the little screws..." "you should silicone the feathers in."

OK so I'll do all that. What do you guys think?

I don't about all that stuff. I essembled mine per the instructions and flew the hell out of it, nothing came loose. The only change I made was larger wheels.

Same with me......I built pretty much as per instructions, add 3 inch wheels. I did put locktite on about everything that did screw together. Also I dont baby this plane either, I fly it pretty aggresive and I havnet had any problems what so ever. JT

My firewall was not glued in properly. I doused the open seam with CA.

Add a third fuel line with a fuel dot. It will make life easier when it is time to refill!

OK, I give up! Whats a "Fuel Dot?"

A fuel dot is where you add the fuel. 2 types..one that goes inline with feed to carb, or the one where you can use the 3rd hole in the rubber stopper to add fuel. I have both and prefer the inline fueler.

Thank You!

The Avistar is a great flying plane bone stock. Leave it alone. If you have the select version, I would suggest gluing the wing halves together and gluing the horioznal and vertical stabs.

A few years back, we were racing Avistars with hot 45's and pipes, we called it Trainer Races.

The only thing that I did different is that I fiberglassed the center section together on the underside of the wing only. Other than that, I made all the modifications you stated!

I purchased an an avistar select in November of last year. Great trainer.

The only things I did differently from the instructions were to epoxy the two wing halves together and epoxy in the tail feathers.

I would watch the rubber stopper in the fuel tank. Mine vibrated loose and I wound up dumping a bunch of fuel all over the inside of the plane which was a pain to clean up.

Other than that... great plane. I still fly it every weekend.

Ted

I agree with the other posts, glue the wing halves together and glue the stab and fin on. I had a student add a spreader wire between the landing gear wires to take some of the bounce out on landing. We haven't had any rain in two months and the field is like landing on a concrete runway. It helped with his landings tremendously.

I recommend you not glue the wing halves together. Why? The only accident my Avistar has been in would have likely broken the wing had it been glued together. As it turned out, the wing spar rod bent. So it was an easy repair. If you don't glue the halves together, then you have some minor maintenance on the strap and screws - keep them snug. Either way, it's a great-flying plane. I could be wrong - the wing might not have broken. But if the rod had bent with the halves together - oiy what a pain to fix...

my tank stopper failed also and filled the inside with fuel. My tail feathers are now twisted about 5-10 degrees. Sure looks funny but still flies great.

If you are going to just fly in circles, you do not need to glue the wings together. Anything more and you need to glue the wing halves together.

I glued my wings and they still separated slightly during basic aerobatics. Luckily I noticed before another flight. I re-glued them and glassed the halves together. No problems since. If you don't glue the wings together and they separate during flight you will have nothing to repair.....

It really is a tough plane. It is like that old VW bug that everyone's parents had in the 70's.

Mine stay together through snaps, spins, tight high-speed loops inside and outside. No problems (yet). Maybe there's a lawn dart in my future?