roversgonemad
Member
A while back a friend gave me an old Hobbico Avistar that someone had given to him. He's a 3D guy and really didn't care for the Avistar; so for many years it languished in his garage. Last fall I was talking to him about getting back into the hobby and he mentioned I could have the Avistar. Somewhere in it's past it had some encounters with some stationary objects and had a little bit of crash rash. The horizontal stabilizer had a pretty good chunk knocked out of it and the port side wing had a couple of holes. Other than that, the plane was not in terrible shape. Finally today, I pulled it down from the shelf I had left it on and really assessed the damage. To my surprise, the balsa for the tail was actually still attached to the wadded up covering and was salvageable. It's been many years since I have messed with covering but I figured what can it hurt, so I borrowed a covering iron from the friend that gave me the plane, and gave the repairs a go.
Here is the tail prior to the fix:
And after:
Being a cheapskate, I used some covering that I got from my dad. I know it doesn't even come close to matching, but it will fly. This MonoKote was new in 1981 but still worked quite well.
Here's the top of the wing:
And here's the bottom:
I couldn't get the bottom of the wing to tighten up as I would have liked. I might cut this out and start from the beginning on the bottom.
The plane has an OS .40 on it that seems to be in pretty good shape. I have to admit, with all the fun I have been having with electric planes lately, I am really tempted to convert this one to electric as well. But then again, it's big enough that I really can't go fly it in the same places I fly my foam electric planes, so maybe it's better to just leave it a glow plane and have fun with it like it is. At some point, I'll probably strip all the covering and redo the whole plane, but for now I wanted to get it ready to go back in the air. I will probably build some caps for the horizontal stab from Balsa and cover those as well. The original plastic end caps are long gone. It will still be a while before it flies, but it's a step closer.
It's kind of like having a dog from the shelter... It's not perfect, but I was able to save it from an untimely demise. My friend told me his wife had been threatening to put it in the trash for some time before he gave it to me. I guess with his other half dozen or so planes, it was just too much for her. I am happy to have saved it from the rubbish bin!
Here is the tail prior to the fix:
And after:
Being a cheapskate, I used some covering that I got from my dad. I know it doesn't even come close to matching, but it will fly. This MonoKote was new in 1981 but still worked quite well.
Here's the top of the wing:
And here's the bottom:
I couldn't get the bottom of the wing to tighten up as I would have liked. I might cut this out and start from the beginning on the bottom.
The plane has an OS .40 on it that seems to be in pretty good shape. I have to admit, with all the fun I have been having with electric planes lately, I am really tempted to convert this one to electric as well. But then again, it's big enough that I really can't go fly it in the same places I fly my foam electric planes, so maybe it's better to just leave it a glow plane and have fun with it like it is. At some point, I'll probably strip all the covering and redo the whole plane, but for now I wanted to get it ready to go back in the air. I will probably build some caps for the horizontal stab from Balsa and cover those as well. The original plastic end caps are long gone. It will still be a while before it flies, but it's a step closer.
It's kind of like having a dog from the shelter... It's not perfect, but I was able to save it from an untimely demise. My friend told me his wife had been threatening to put it in the trash for some time before he gave it to me. I guess with his other half dozen or so planes, it was just too much for her. I am happy to have saved it from the rubbish bin!