Tutor (oz11400)

About this Plan

Top Flite Tutor. Control line profile trainer model, for .35 power.

Quote: "Hello Steve/Mary, Recently I got a hold of a very bad copy of the Top Flite Tutor kit plan online. Difficult to read. Since Top Flite did not make an actual builders plan, I decided to undertake making a set based on that copy. I have made a working set of plans. I made a few adjustments, added the use of an arrow shaft pushrod instead of what the kit plan calls for and made the wing tips easier to make as I don't have kit parts to copy the outline from. This plan includes ROOT and TIP ribs. Should be easy to make using the stack method. The only caveat, I ask all modelers to measure twice and cut once especially for the rib spar cut out. Use 1/4 x 3/8 balsa and trim the ribs appropriately. This airplane is set to fly with your favorite .35 engine. It has a 45 in wing span. Keep it light and it should perform well. Thanks, George"

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Update 11/04/2020: Added kit review from Flying Models February 1979, thanks to RFJ.

Quote: "An FM Product Review: Top Flite's Tutor. All about a Controline beginners offering from a long-time leader in the kit manufacturing field. By Jeff Jeffers.

It's always exciting to open a new kit. But it is especially thrilling to be able to open a brand-new kit that has just been put on the market. You have never seen this kit before. The plans and wood and hardware are all new to you. None of your friends has ever built one. Yours will be the first at the field.

These were my thoughts as I lifted the lid on the Tutor box for this FM Product Review. The Tutor is the latest release in the controline field by Top Rite Models Inc, 1901 N Narragansett Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60639. I was not disappointed by what awaited me in the box. The first thing I saw was the full size plans. All kits should contain a set of full size plans. These are very nice blue-line drawings and have all of the building instructions printed right on them. The box also contained a rather complete hardware package which included a nylon bellcrank, three control horns, shaped wire landing gear, pushrods, devises, adjustable leadout guide, leadout wire, and the usual assortment of nuts, bolts, washers, and clips. There was also a selection of good Top Flite balsa including lots of strip wood for cap-strips.

As for the wood, this kit contains fewer than the average number of die-cut parts. The only die-cut balsa pieces are the wing ribs. horizontal stabi-lizer, rudder, vertical fin, and a sheet of 'tri-aids' - more about those later. All of the plywood pieces are also die-cut. In the kit which I had, these plywood pieces needed a bit of persuasion with a jig saw before they would release. Aside from the above mentioned pieces, all other parts are already cut to shape. The fuselage deserves special mention in that it is a beautiful piece of balsa fully four inches wide. Another piece of balsa is glued to this and forms the cockpit/turtle deck.

The kit was inspected, the directions read, and the plans perused several times. Then the work-bench was swept off and dusted clean. Now, building could begin. As per the directions, construction was begun with the wing. The die-cut ribs released with little fuss. Two different methods are used to help maintain alignment while building the wing. Tabs attached to several of the ribs keep things true in a horizontal plane. These make it harder to build a warp into the wing. To insure that the ribs are perpendicular to the building surface, the above mentioned 'tri-aids'are used. These are balsa triangles that measure 45 x 45 x 90 degrees. They do their job very well.

I was able to use Hot Stuff for the initial assem-bly of the wing because of the above-average fit of all parts. All joints were later lightly painted with Titebond to assure strong joints and to fill the few remaining gaps.

Construction follows the normal procedure for a built-up, D-tube wing. This, in the initial construction, includes ribs, upper and lower spars, leading and trailing edges. After this is completed the bellcrank platform and all sheeting and capstrips are added. All went well until it was time to add the leading edge sheeting. This requires that the outside of the sheet be wetted and then gently bent around the ribs and glued. To do this correctly the wood should be straight grained. The wood supplied in this particular kit, however, was quarter grained (speckled). Instead of being easy to bend, this wood tends to split, as it did when I tried to apply it. This happened only with the first piece. The rest were bent and glued without incident, but it took a good deal of time and patience.

The remainder of the wing sheeting (including the outer bay of each wing tip) and the capstrips were then added. Next came the outboard wing tip weight and the adjustable leadout guide. Two pieces of 1/4 in sheet are used to form each wing tip. With a bit of sanding, the above construction resulted in a straight, strong, and true wing.

With the wing now completed, it was time to get to work on the fuselage. The profile fuselage of the Tutor follows standard building practices. This consists of first gluing in the maple motor mounts and landing gear block, and then fixing the doublers in place. Devon Clear Epoxy was used for all construction of the front end. Before gluing the doublers on, be sure to drill the holes for the landing gear clips. The punch marks are printed on the wrong side of the doublers, and are not visible when glued to the fuselage. Next, the turtle deck is added, the aft end tapered slightly, and all edges behind the doublers are rounded.

I would like to digress here for a word about wood sizing. All wood in the Tutor kit is chosen with its intended function clearly in mind. But some of the sizes are slightly different than those found in other profile kits..."

Supplementary file notes

Review.

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