ETA: This was also posted under the RC Pattern Flying forum. Please post all replies here: Classic pattern plane restoration

So my father starting flying around 1973 and always loved flying pattern. In 1991 he purchased a Greatplanes Tiporare from Rays hobbie in Warwick, RI. In 1993 my parents split up and he sold off all his gear to Nancy's Hobby in Warren, RI. He passed in 2004. The hobby shop owner passed in 2010.....So I received a call from the late owners wife last month that while cleaning out the basement of what used to be the hobbie shop, she had stumbled upon my fathers old plane and asked if I wanted it. So I jumped at the chance and grabbed it from her. Twenty years of sitting in a basement has taken its toll. So I'm planning a full restoration to get it back to flying condition. It's going to need some fiberglassing and a new stab but it's very doable.



The old enya 61 is frozen and most likely too far gone. Looks like the fuselage was exposed to water at one time




Hears a a clip of it in its glory days onYoutube it was made durning a demo for a school
http://youtu.be/zrENrjt1jdw

Great project!

All Tipo's are worth restoring to their original state.

Since you most likely will need to replace the FW, and if I may make a suggestion, restore the canopy to it's original shape and mount the engine sideways as it should. If you prefer to keep the pipe down the fuse side (though Tipo's are optimized for a pipe slung under the wing due to their stab anhedral) you can use a RE engine (currently, both YS and NR produce RE 61' - both of which have monster power) but otherwise a good old fashioned SE 61 will do the trick and the model will present even better with the pipe under the wing.

Welcome to the forum!

David

P.S. You may recognize my avatar model...

It does need some work.

Here is a standard Tiporare nose.
Chris...