Aviation Concepts rc "We are Open and fulfilling back orders at this time!"
General
What is a short kit?
A short kit includes the plans, manual, all the Laser cut / CNC cut formers and ribs and other intricate made pieces. Our kits include the fiberglass nose cone or cowl. Short kits don't include stock lumber like sheeting, sticks, hardware and other items. The kit does include a Bill Of Materials list in the manual.
What glues do you recomend?
Gluing together hardwood pieces ie. Bass, spruce and birch ply. Because these pieces are very dense it is recommended that you drill multiple tiny dimpled holes in both adjoining pieces. For general glue joints like this I like to use thick CA glue. Also, when gluing these pieces together with epoxy do not clamp parts so tight together that the glue squeezes out of the joint. You will have a weak bond.
Other glues used.
If you are a fan of aliphatic wood glue then Tite Bond II is the best glue for all general construction. Except for joining wing skin sheets together and gluing on the L.E. It is hard to sand and leaves a ridge. For these I like using the aliphatic wood glue from the makers of Gorilla Glue. It dries faster and sands really easy.
For attaching the wing skins to the structure I found the foaming Gorilla Glue works best. It gives you more working time to lay down the glue onto all those ribs. The other aliphatic glues skins over way too soon.
Medium CA glue is my favorite for all other balsa general construction, while thin CA is primarily used to harden pre-threaded screw holes in wood.
Where is the best place to buy balsa wing sheeting?
This question comes up alot. If you order from the known "Big" balsa online stores, you would have to order an additional 25% more of the sheets to weed out the inconsistent grain, density and even slight differences in thicknesses. So, the balsa in our kits and the sheeting I recomend is from Specialized Balsa. In their "comments" section of your order, specify that you want "all sheeting to be medium density, for model airplane use". The cost will be 40% more but is well worth it.
1/5 scale PT-19
How did you finish your PT-19?
We covered everything with solartex. The wings and stab and fin with Cub Yellow, the fuselage and rudder with Antique or Natural. The sheeted areas of the fuselage (where the full scale is aluminum sheet) where then masked and ‘filled’ with several coats of sandable primer. Then we sand ‘em glass smooth. This builds up the ‘sheet-metal’ areas so when we spray the latex blue on (2 coats) the areas we primed and filled look ‘metal smooth’ and are slightly raised, and the open structure areas haven’t lost the fabric texture and wind up looking a half shade lighter in color. We get lots of complements on the effect. The plane sat for a week in the sun at Delaware.. not a single wrinkle or blister
If I use Solartex to cover the airplane how can I get a paint to match the cowling?
I go over this in the manual. A short answer is to bring a 2" square piece of the covering to Home Depot so they can scan the fabric and do a color match and mix up a Behr latex exterior sample paint.
Is there enough ground clearance for a 22" prop?
In level position (tail up; on wheels) prop clearance to ground would leave 2 ½” with a 22’ prop on it. If you need a bit more height than that you could cheat more standing height from the robo-struts, leaving them a bit longer.
Will any of your fiberglass parts fit on the Dynaflite PT-19?
Nope! The Dynaflite PT-19 is fun scale and not a true to scale outline. Thus the fiberglass parts wont fit.
Will the windshield kits fit the Dynaflite PT-19?
No, the curvature on top of the fuselage is not the same.
What size fuel tank did you use?
We used the Du-Bro 20oz fuel tank.
What servos did you use for the control surfaces?
Hitec 645 MG is what we used in our PT-19's, (6) for the control surfaces and (1) for the throttle.
Where do you get the 0-1/4 micro screws?
Micro Fasteners has a great selection of micro sized screws.
Which landing gear struts are used on the PT-19 and does it include the metal mounting bracket?
The landing gear is Robarts robo struts. The part no. is #681R and #681L and they include the mounts part No. is #PT19-103.
Would the DA50 fit inside the available cowling without any chopping up?
You will be doing a lot of hacking up of the cowl with the cylinder head sticking out not only from the bottom but a little up the sides as well, besides let alone the wraparound Pitts muffler. The D50 is too powerful and not recommended...
What engine choices do you recommend?
The best engine choices are PTE 36 or the DLE 35 (DLE is the better choice) they're both rear exhaust and rear carburetor.
With the PTE 36 I fly my PT-19 at half power on a 18x8 xoar prop.
You could use glow like a large saito four stroke engine of the equivalent power or cc?
Yes, but those engines cost a lot more money and not cost-effective to run glow fuel in such a large engine, gas is just so much cheaper and easier to run
Where do you get the decals you show on your model?
The large vinyl decals are from Red5Designs. Tell them that you have an Aviation Concepts PT-19 and what you want... i.e. decals, paint masks, number and colors etc.
What wheel choices do you recommend?
As far as wheels the PT 19 had two kinds of wheels on it one is the hubcap version which I used is a Du-Bro 5 inch wheel and made a hub cap from thin ABS plastic. The other one is the nonhub cap Version which would be a Sullivan 5 inch wheel. If you search and look at some of the pictures you will see number 44 has the nonhub cap and number 73 or the one in the bones has the hubcap version.
1/4 scale 2-33
What airplane is recomended for this glider? (size and engine size)
We use as an absolute minimum a 1/4 scale cub with a 40cc gas engine.
Do you feel this would be a good trainer sailplane for me once completed?
Yes, if you have mastered basic rc flight. If not, then start out with a Radian or Radian Pro from Horizon Hobby. Our 1/4 scale 2-33 is very easy to fly on tow, in the air and has no bad characteristics plus it is extreamly easy to land. (If it's easy, it's fun).
What is the shipping cost to Australia?
Shipping cost is $119.60 USD via USPS Priority Mail International.