Avistar Trainer

Hmm, I belong to two different clubs where the Avistar is the trainer of choice. I've seen plenty of Avistars crash last year, but not due to a failure of the wing joiner. I would have thought that epoxying the two wing halves together would spread the load enough that a weak brace would be unlikely to fail. If these are RTF package planes, then that's obviously a factory failure.

Thanks for the heads up, I will watch for problems like you've described.

My second "multi" ship (more than single channel control) died on its 13th flight because of a wing center section failure. That has made me hyper sensitive to wing joining/center section strength.

I always replace dihedral braces if they feel the least bit funky. Of course, this does the person without the experience to make such a judgement absolutely no good at all.

However, I do feel that if enough folks make an effort to raise Tower Hobbies (Hobbico, Great Planes, etc.) concsiousness a bit on the matter, we should see some changes being made very quickly.

Ed Cregger

Hi Phil, I think the problem is too many stick knockers are training future stick knockers. If you're training a video gamer I thing the first thing you must instill in the gamers neuron paths is that it's not necessary to hit the stops to perform maneuvers properly. The Avistar is one of my favorite birds but it probably will not withstand a full up elevator pullout of a terminal velocity dive. A level turn with a 60° bank will pull 2g's. It wouldn't surprise me if some of the stuff I see doesn't result in 20+ g's. Every bird (model or full scale) has a load limit. Exceed it and it starts to shed parts :)

Ted shuffled out of his cave and grunted these great (and sometimes not so great) words of knowledge:

A few years ago I had a similar issue on a SuperStar. Fortunately, the plane was still within the warranty period. The club president was flying the plane at an open house and just about to give it over to a potential member/student when the wings folded.

My LHS contacted Tower/Hobbico and stated what happened and that we had all the parts if they needed them. Tower/Hobbico sent a replacement SuperStar about 3 weeks later - no questions, no hassle.

If the planes are still within the 90 day (?) warranty period, I would contact Tower.

Hope this is of some help

Gee, that was nice of them. What about the damaged engine and radio?

Ed Cregger

Tower/GP/Hobbico is really good about their RTF packages. We had a club member last spring who's Avistar had something break (control surface or control rod/linkage) on takeoff during his maiden flight. He contacted Hobbico and sent them his Avistar RTF pieces and a note from the flight instructor, they sent him a new RTF package with new engine and radio.

They advertise the "Learn to Fly Guarantee" for the NexStar, but they will back up most all of their trainers.

Obviously, if you crash your Avistar ARF while operating your Evolution .46NT engine and your Airtronics receiver, there isn't much Hobbico can do about the "other guys' stuff." If you're flying Hobbico's family of products and suffer a manufacturing defect-related crash, you might be surprised at just how far they will go to accomodate you. You can debate the quality of Hobbico's (and its subsidiaries') products, but you'd be hard pressed to find better customer service.

Ted shuffled out of his cave and grunted these great (and sometimes not so great) words of knowledge:

Fortunately, except for the prop, there was no damage to the engine and the only damage to the radio equipment was one stripped servo. Considering my monetary outlay, I got away cheap. As you well know, your time is ALWAYS "donated". {:-)

I have been thinking lately that an insurance policy of some type could be sold to insure the engine and radio components. It may not be practical, but it is something to think about.

Ed Cregger