I have replied to many posts on newgroups, promoting the Prangster as a good trainer, well to save me repeatedly typing the same reply, here is a page for it all. So if you are looking for a trainer then read on...
)
The Prangster is a high wing trainer that is made from a
selection of black EPP foam, polystyrene and plastic and covered in colored
parcel tape. It's not the prettiest of planes but flies surprisingly well and
more importantly bounces well, making it ideal as a first trainer.
It has a symetrical wing section, and with the rates turned up, there is very little that it will not do, roll rates are ballistic, and with a good 46 sized engine it will take you beyond what most other trainers will allow, and allow you to get away with it!
As a bonus, it can easily be converted to a low winger, but really, by the time you have got to that stage, you might as well get a proper low winger, chosen correctly should not present you with any problems.
Most people should be able to put it together in a few evenings, although I would suggest that if this is your first model, that prior to joining up the two fusalage halves, you get an experienced modeller to check your servo linkages. This just saves having to cut all the tape afterwards.
There are a few things that you can do which will improve things, these are eaisiest done when first building the model.
| Replace the spars with Carbon fibre tubes. |
|---|
| The supplied wing spars are wooden, and will most likely snap at their root in your first crash or when highly stressed. Fit some carbon fibre ones, epoxying them into the dihedral brace, and it will last much longer |
| Re-enforce the fusalage. |
| The wings are attached using rubber bands around two dowls that fit thru
holes in the EPP foam. After time, these holes can wear and ultimately split.
By fitting some lite-ply doublers to the sides of the fusalage, it makes it
much stronger. Use 1/16 ply cut to fit from the front to about 1 inch behind the rear wing dowl. Glue it to the foam with epoxy, then cover with the tape supplied. |
| Fit metal clevis' on the inside. |
| It is worth fitting metal clevis' to the servo arms, particularly on the
throttle, rudder and elevator servos which get sealed into the fuslage. If you
use the plastic ones and they come off, as happened to me, then you need to cut
open the tape to get to them again, not the end of the world, but a PITA. Whether you use metal or plastic ones on the outside is up to you, I did. |
| Fit larger wheels. |
| Take offs from grass are much better with larger wheels, 2.5" or 3" |
| Fit metal clevis' on the inside. |
| It is worth fitting metal clevis' to the servo arms, particularly on the
throttle, rudder and elevator servos which get sealed into the fuslage. If you
use the plastic ones and they come off, as happened to me, then you need to cut
open the tape to get to them again, not the end of the world, but a PITA. Whether you use metal or plastic ones on the outside is up to you, I did. |
| Re-Enforce the wire undercarriage. |
| The wire undercart will probably weaken after a while, depends on how quickly you master gently landings, I'm still practising at that! Some sort of re-enforcement will probably be required after a few months. |
)
This was the worst crash I had, spiralled into the ground at
a fair speed, I panicked and forgot to leave go of the aileron! The damage
resulted in prop, spinner, muffler and cracked nose cone. Unfortunately, the
impact pushed the fuel tank fittings, and the bent filler/breather ones pierce
the tank causing the fuel to leak out. This meant that the tape would not stick
to the oily foam, so it spent a couple of evenings being cleaned and soaked in
various soaps and things, then being dried out in the airing cupboard. I made
sure that when fitting the next tank, that the fittigs were nicely clear of the
sides, and I taped around the tank with some bullet tape just to make sure.
This crash and many others would have been a bin-bag job for a conventional balsa model.
The wing spars had been replaced with carbon fibre ones in a previous crash.
Once you have got to grips with the basics, loops, rolls, spins, inverted, stall turns, immelmanns, cubans there is virtually nothing you can't do.
Have fun!