So, the mail man paid me a visit today

What build supplies do I need? Should I even build it by myself? I really don't want to make a mistake during the build.

Well, do you have any experience in building. Is this a kit or a ARF. If unsure what to do, talk with some members in the club. You do belong to a club, right.

I have the arf version of the Avistar, and I have no building experience.

And yes, I belong to a club

Nice things about clubs-you will have someone that would be more than willing to help you put your new plane together. That way you can see how some things are done and the person helping you will feel good knowing that you trusted him to help. That is a really nice plane and when it is ready to go you will enjoy it. Do you have any flying experience?

Yup, I've flown on the Clubs avistar, which was converted to an electric.
Already gotten to landings.

Good for you. This is a great hobby and the only thing better is the friends that you make at the field. Send us some pictures as you are putting it together. What are you going to use for power-elect or nitro?

Glow engine, the O.S 46 LA

Hard to beat the OS. Good luck with your plane and I hope you have many, many flights on it.[8D][8D][8D]

Forgot to ask, is 30min epoxy strong enough for joining the wing halves?

Thats the stuff to use. Have some alcohol on hand to clean the top and bottom of the wing when you put it together. (Alcohol-not the drinking kind but the isopropyl alcohol that you can buy at wal-mart). Make sure you get a good fit before you put the epoxy on.

Man you will LOVE this plane! you'll be fine building.. that's who the avistar is targeted towards.. the beginner so just follow the instruction from the manual step by step, take your time, don't take short cuts and you'll have yourself a reliable fun flying plane that you'll never get bored of..

Another question, the two plywood wing joiners, aren't exactly the same shape. Will this affect anything?

We need some pictures of the build to really help ya out throughout the build

They don't have to be perfectly matched or shaped , as long as both pieces fit together good enough to allow the wings to come in full contact with each other at the rib. If they do not, then you will need to trim the one that is causing the mis-fit.

Get them as close as you can. You may have to sand a little. but don't sand unless you have to. It should go in the pocket fairly snug. Make sure you get them in the right direction. Don't put them in upside down. Do one side at a time. then when you are ready to join the other wing half put the epoxy on the joiner and on the root ribs. Slide together, get them snug, put some tape across the seam to hold them while the epoxy sets. This is the time that you want to take the alcohol and clean off any epoxy that squeezed out. You may have to do the alcohol thing a couple of times as it is starting to harden. make sure that the wing halves don;'t move while you are waiting for the epoxy to harden.

side bar, I put a couple of small clamps on the wing joiner until the epoxy sets. You may also want to use the alcohol to clean off the wing joiner so it will be able to slide in the pocket.

Okay, just came back from my LHS, got some 30minute epoxy, thin CA glue, and fuel

Now cutting the balsa for the aileron servo.

Opinions vary, but I like to use epoxy with a longer set time than 30 minutes for wing joining.

Reason is that it gives melenty of time to mess around until I am happy with the alignment. As I recall from when I lived there some time ago TO can be pretty hot in August so you could find the 30min setting pretty fast.

30 minute is great for just about everything else.


Terry

G'day

I hate joining the wing halves of ARFs. Epoxy is smelly and messy, things can get out of alignment and some are hard to clamp together while the glue dries.

So ...

If it really looks like being a pain, I used to use old fashioned 24 hour Araldite - the original epoxy. It is very slow but it is also very strong.

These days I have gotten better at it and I usually just use the 30 minute stuff but it may go off rather quickly in hot weather.

My most recent pair of wing halves was for a World Models Skyraider Mach 1. This turned out to be an easy one. The wing joiner fitted with no need to adjust it. The wing halves fitted together perfectly (they don't always), the two halves each have small tabs at the front which when joined become the locating pin to hold the wing leading edge into the model and finally because it is a bolt on wing, there are two convenient holes at the trailing edge which I used to clamp things together.

After checking the fit of everything, I mixed up a generous amount of epoxy and started to coat the insides of one of the wing's locating tubes. Next coat the outsides of the wing joiner and slide it in. Hopefully quite a bit of epoxy will be squeezed out and I spread this over the wing joint. Next fill the other wing joiner with more epoxy and then coat the other half of the joiner. Slide everything together and some epoxy will squeeze out round the edges. At this point I wipe most of the excess off with scraps of balsa and put a clamp on the tabs at the front of the wing to pull the halves together. At the trailing edge I put a couple of pieces of wire about 3 inches long through the two holes then put rubber bands on each ends of the wires to pull the two halves together. Now it is clean up time and I use a rag soaked in what we call Metho which is denatured alcohol. This rag will be a throw away item. Go over it until everything is clean then check the alignment of the wing. I also put a small clamp at the trailing edge to stop the halves from slipping up or down relative to each other.

I stand my wings on their end until they dry. This way there is no real load on the wing joint and my clamps and rubber bands are strong enough to keep the two halves together.

I still hate doing it but after several dozen it is getting easier.

If you can't use the wire trick because there are no holes, then I use masking tape or similar to pull the halves together and keep things straight.

Have fun.

Mike in Oz

The shop didn't have anything with a set time over 30.

But I have two questions, the holes on the engine tabs, don't match up with the holes on the engine mount.

And I have a piece of balsa, with two holes drilled in it, and I don't see it used anywhere in the instruction manual.

Here is a picture http://s902.photobucket.com/albums/a...g&newest=1

You're in luck. If it's an ARF you don't have to build it. Just assemble it. ;-)


Don't know what you have in Canadia, but places like Lowes, Home Depot or West Marine will sell West Systems or System Three epoxy that is generally much better (and cheaper per ounce purchased) and longer pot life than the 5, 15 and 30 minute Devcon and similar stuff.

30 minute is fine for most R/C uses except laminating fiberglass. Don't sweat the little stuff.

As far as your extra piece: lots of ARFs are now including parts needed for electric motors vs. good and proper engine installations. If it's not mentioned in the manual forget it.

i believe that piece of wood that you show in the picture may very well be to glue on one of the formers to help hold the push-rods. Take a look in the manual where it shows installing the servos and push-rods. This is only my guess. some that have put this model together may know for sure what that is.

The "lite ply" (not balsa) piece is for the rudder and elevator push rod tubes. It goes in at the back of the servo tray accross the former.

If the engine mount is metal the holes are for screws used in clamping the engine in place. four screws and two metal bars that should line up with holes in the engine mount clamp down on the tabs on the side of the engine. That mount does not bolt down the engine through the holes in the engine mounting tabs.

If you want this is a great time to consider some options.
I have an Avistar that I have modified:
bolt on wing
dual alieron servos
tail dragger

It is nice to have something a little different!

G'day

The Epoxy you have will be fine so long as you make sure everything fits before you mix any up and so long as you don't do it on a really hot day. Even then so long as you have planned what you are going to do, you should have no problems.

On the subject of modifications - if this is your first model then I would strongly suggest you simply follow the instructions. Later when you have a few models under your belt, you can start some "kit bashing"

Tail draggers are a bit tougher than trikes. But they are also slightly more difficult to get off the ground. They are far more affected by engine torque than trikes.

Two aileron setups are great too but as your model is already set for one, I'd stick to that. People often do this so they can use flaperons. They are usually more trouble than they are worth. The big advantage is that if you have a computer radio, setting up is easier and more flexible.

And for trainers I always use rubber bands if that is the default. Should you cartwheel the plane, you are less likely to do damage to the wing and fuse.

Again, once you know what you are doing, you can do all the mods you like.

No problem, Home Depot entered the Canadian market 16 years ago. Lowe's is in Ontario. West Systems is available across Canada.
Assembled and flown an Avistar. Liked it so much I have a newer one at home in a box. Used a ST GS40 it balanced perfectly. Great plane. Just follow the instructions with the ARF.

Jim

Engine mounting is described on pages 15 & 16 of the manual. The picture is not very big so I can understand why it might be confusing.

The drilled ply part is the "pushrod support" mentioned in step 1-1 on page 18. The text describes adjusting its position and gluing it in. You can see it in the picture just above the text.