Hobbistar 60 Rebuild

[JustHatched 12,123]

I am going to post the progress of an RC plane rebuild I am starting.

I will be adding pics as the rebuild occurs.

A little history on the plane.

It is a 72 inch wingspan high wing trainer designed for use with a .60 size nitro engine, I bought the plane new and assembled it with a .65 OS engine and Futaba electronics.

The plane was a great flyer, capable of doing minor stunts and flew inverted quite well. One day at a local club I was flying (with a 72 megahertz transmitter) and I was probably 200 ft in the air and it went out of control and did not respond to transmitter input (turned out to be cell phone interuption) and eventually doing a full throttle nose dive in a pond next door. The wings were split, the nose of the plane was destroyed and the engine was only hanging on by the throttle wire, but it did float on the wings for 45 minutes before I was able to retrieve it.

I rebuilt it and went to test fly it with again horrible results when the left aileron servo failed sending it cart wheeling down the run way.

Now it is time to get it in the air and I am making some changes.

First I am adding 12" to the wing span so it qualifies as a "big bird" with 84" total wingspan, converting to electric flight so Rose can fly it as she as no desire to fly nitro and debating on making it a V-tail.

I will get some pics of the current condition posted in a day or so.

[G37 3,445]

Got any pics of what it looked like prior to the crash? Sounds pretty neat.

[JustHatched 12,123]

If this is something that interests you G37, I got a couple posts in this thread you might like http://www.domesticbatterygta.com/topic/16-non-gaming-hobbies-and-pastimes/   Check out post 11

[G37 3,445]

Oh shit. That's dope. I watched the vid. That's pretty bad ass, love the mini airstrip. The jet sounded pretty wicked. I have a feeling that this is a hobby that can get insanely expensive insanely quick.

[JustHatched 12,123]

It is like anything else, you spend as much or as little as you want.

 

That jet is a friend of mine plane, he has about over 20k in it. The jet turbine alone is 5k. 

 

I don't have a jet.

 

The Hobbistar is about $500 I think.

[The putnonpain 14]

That is really cool hatched. I wish i can be able to do that kind of stuff haha

[rumdig 957]

I was REALLY into RC as a teenager, bought a trainer plane (can't remember which one) but was not able to fully assemble it (was required to actually shape the wings from balsa). I absolutely loved the experience, though. Please keep me informed...I might just have to take up this hobby again

[Locust_cnd 166]

My father used to run the nitro boats and I loved ripping them around the pond as a kid, really cool stuff to get into

[JustHatched 12,123]

Here is a couple current pics, the first 2 are of the wing, you can see the damage to the center where the monokote shows severe damage to the rib structure.

 

 

 

And the fuselage on the shelf

 

 

[JustHatched 12,123]

I got some wing work done today, I pulled the covering off and found the wing damage wasn't extensive, the crash merely busted the wing spar causing the two halves to seperate as shown with some slight damage otherwise.
 

 

 

 

In this pic is the left wing, I sanded the cover coloring off both halves in filled in the damaged areas

 

 

From there I began to work on building the center section to extend the wingspan. I used another right wing section I aquiered from a friend who had it laying around. I cut it to 18 inches and epoxied 3/16 inch aircraft plywood on each end producing the pictured result.

 

 

From there add some stiffening in the rear of the center where it mounts to the fuselage

 

 

After that I added a new wingspar and worked on the left and right wings to attach to the center, pictured is the pieces all slid together, they are not yet glued as I still have some detail fitting to do. However the result produces a 90 inch wingspan. The original was 72 inches. Once done it will qualify to fly in giant scale events.

 

[JustHatched 12,123]

I got the wing pieces epoxied together and started adding wood filler, I have not taken a pic of that yet.
 
I stripped most of the covering off the fuselage
 
In the first pic you can see where the left nose of the plane is missing, and in the 2nd the tail damage

 

 

[JustHatched 12,123]

This got the last page pretty quick,

 

Anyway, no new pics and things have been on hold, but I have intentions of wrapping the wing in a layer of fiberglass to add some strength and stiffness to it. It'll add some weight by I think it will all still be good....hope

[newyork-nightmare 698]

This thread bring back memories. As a kid my neighbor had a shop in his garage full of these and would go over and help him all day for 5.00

Enough to buy a Thrasher magazine and a candy bar. 

When he died his wife offered to give me all his stuff, but my dumb old man said no.

[rumdig 957]

This got the last page pretty quick,

 

Anyway, no new pics and things have been on hold, but I have intentions of wrapping the wing in a layer of fiberglass to add some strength and stiffness to it. It'll add some weight by I think it will all still be good....hope

I've been awaiting pictures, progress, and the such