NexSTAR Resurrection
 

Well, I got a wild hair. I decided to drag out the bashed and battered fuselage of my NexSTAR. I made necessary repairs, as well as corrected repairs I had done wrong, in the past. The fuse is actual straight again, now. So far, I have waterproofed inside and out, covered the entire outer surface with light fiber glass cloth and Minwax's PolyAcryl. The purpose of the waterproofing is to protect it from any spray or whatever. I intend to make this a 'scale-looking' Cessna 172 on floats. I'd like to install a .61 engine on board, also.
What I'm looking for help with, right now is, what should I put the engine at for thrust angles? Without all the training aides, I've read other threads that suggest changes to right and/or down. I'm just curious, what has worked best for others. And, do I need to change wing incidence? I've already removed the dihedral and am running 2 aileron servos, in the wings.

Thanks,
EJ

RE: NexSTAR Resurrection
 

I did a similar conversion to my old beat up nextar after several minor mishaps, a decent crash, and some fuel soaking in a few areas,I stripped the fuse, glued some of the loose areas,recovered it and installed a OS 61 with a larger fuel tank.

I am about to switch out the 61 2stroke for a 91 4stroke its a bit cleaner, and quieter on the water, the 61's going into a FW 190.

some things you will need to do is relocate the landing gear,I made a new mount just forward of the 3rd former and it balanced out well with no added weight on either end,I used the Hangar-9 60 size landing gear and braced them with some alum tubing.

your also going to need to get a larger mount for the 61 the iso mount doesn't fit the larger engine, as for changing the thrust thats your choice I didn't.

I fit a set of goldberg superfloats to it, there a little large for the airframe but they float well and are a nice kit to build, with easy to follow instructions on construction and mounting.

as for changing wing incidence I havent heard of that being needed, I did seal the wing saddle with weather stripping to keep the water out, I haven't straitened out my wing yet though.