Well I got a 2nd Tutor II arf- I love my 1st one so much I need one at home and one stashed where I'm working. Have a couplle hundred flight on the 1st one, gonna try and 10X that on this one as a pattern practice ship.

Mods I consider minimum- and don't cost a ton.

Carbon tube push rods and 4-40 ball link hardware throughout controls

Replace leadouts at minimum and bush holes on crank with soft copper tubing, or replace the belcrank too, beef up the mount, use good 4" phenolic crank.

Replace all control surface hinges w/ pin hinges- very easy since slots are cut

1/4" balsa nose doubler skinned with 1/64 ply, mine has a layer of glass cloth wrapping the engine mount area. I also bush my mount holes with CF tubes epoxied in for the mount bolts to pass through and help keep the engine bearers from crushing

A few pics

pic 1- fuse nose being laminated up with 1/4" balsa, 1/64 ply, 1/2 oz fiberglass cloth

Pic 2 - detail view of stack-up under glass / weight.
          The blue at botton is 1st glass plate, then wax paper, the white fuse, the
          balsa-1/64 ply sandwich, the glass cloth and more wax paper/glass/ply/weight

3. flight surfaces, all re- shrunk, new belcrank/ leadouts / flap push rod in, new
    hinges, a couple pin hinges for the flap tip. Just have to finish the flap / elevator
    joiners / horns. Save your self some work and order a good set of profile hardware
    from one of our Supporting Vendors.
   

You can change the bellcank / leadouts without cutting the wing. There is a hole in bottom the sheeting with just covering over it that lets you get a screwdriver on the bellcrank bolt. After remoing the bolt, cut the leadouts off at the wingtip end, right at the eyelet.
I use a couple pieces of old .018 lines about 4-5 feet long, for "fish strings" , I superglue them to the ends of the leadout just lay em side by side on wax paper , overlap an inch or so. Fish the old belcrank out through the hole and carefully guide the "fish strings past the leadout quide, the pull all the way through the wing.

I put a 4" suspended unit and added a ply plate on top to hold top of the belcrank pivot shaft. Made a new flap pushrod using 4-40 all thread, carbon tube and ball links.

The 1 oz or so the cheek doubler adds is worth it. It really stiffens up the nose, and will reduce vibration, and help keep the nose from explodinging if you pancake it- nothing will help a straight in hit. The LA .46 should still have no problem, I fly my 1st one at 5,000' in Alburquerque with the LA .46, and it has power to spare.

Pic of the .018 fish lines glued to my new leadouts and ready to pull throuh the wing.

Thanks for the great info. I have never done a suspended bell crank(old r/c retread returning to roots)was looking at a vector kit and it seems doable. I had planned on using a brodak 3 1/4" it sure would be easier,but i would rather have a 4". I'll have to think about it.                  Thanks John.

Thanks for the great info. I have never done a suspended bell crank(old r/c retread returning to roots)was looking at a vector kit and it seems doable. I had planned on using a brodak 3 1/4" it sure would be easier,but i would rather have a 4". I'll have to think about it.                  Thanks John.

Hi John,

I'm 99.999% sure we put a 4" BC in Aaron's Vector ARF.  Don't think there is any "fit issues" in doing it.  If you are looking at building the kit, then it's a "no brainer".

When doing a "kit" or scratch built wing I use a "tensioner spar" inletted into the ribs, right behind the main spar, and extending the width of the sheeting.  Made of 1/8th bass or spruce.  This gives an excellent way of mounting the suspended BC, and it won't pull out of the wing, plus gives a bit of extra strength to the center section with out adding significant weight.

Big Bear

I thought the Tutor II was no longer made.