Posting the info is a great service! The Pronto is a fantastic plane. It's a snap to build, and its flying qualities make it a great trainer, even though it's a low wing.

It's also good for customizing. I even turned one into a Messerschmitt 109 many years ago. Unfortunately, that one went to eBay before I even flew it. (By the way, the Jaegermeister nose decals were leftovers from my first "proper" R/C car, a Tamiya Porsche 934RSR.)

I hope you like it.

Rick

Has anybody done this as electric?

Robert

Originally Posted by kingconsulting

Has anybody done this as electric?

Robert

You read my mind! I was contemplating that as a winter project, it would be an excellent candidate for an E-conversion.

Yes.. both can be spruce..... the top spar SHOULD be spruce as it is directly in contact with the wing saddle and because of the angle and stress needs to be spruce.. the bottom spar can be spruce as well but will add a bit of weight to the wing.. hence the reason for just using a hard balsa spar... this is the way that Dave supplied the orginal T.H.E. kit...

Originally Posted by tcabner

Can both the top and bottom spars be spruce?

Awesome conversions Rico!!!
Yuppers the Pronto does make I feel an excellent trainer because of its flying abilities... the 7"s of dihedral gives it the same stability as a high-wing trainer type aircraft...
Thanxs for sharing!!!

Banjo

Originally Posted by Ricomon

Posting the info is a great service! The Pronto is a fantastic plane. It's a snap to build, and its flying qualities make it a great trainer, even though it's a low wing.

It's also good for customizing. I even turned one into a Messerschmitt 109 many years ago. Unfortunately, that one went to eBay before I even flew it. (By the way, the Jaegermeister nose decals were leftovers from my first "proper" R/C car, a Tamiya Porsche 934RSR.)

I hope you like it.

Rick

Robert.....
yuppers the Pronto would fair well as an electric... Build it light and it should be a very good electric indeed...

Banjo

Originally Posted by kingconsulting

Has anybody done this as electric?

Robert

I might give it a go. My son is interested and I think this would be a good next up from a Slow Stik.

Actually he already picked out the colors

Originally Posted by BanjoTX

Robert.....
yuppers the Pronto would fair well as an electric... Build it light and it should be a very good electric indeed...

Banjo

So my son and I decided to do this as a project together and convert it to electric. I probably won't start until next week or the following week. Probably be best to start a new building thread I suppose?

If anybody is interested I cleaned up the scans that Banjo uploaded so I can see easier (white background etc.). Attached.

Robert King

edit:converted to pdf

Thanks Robert for converting it to pdf form . joe

I'm confused about the wing leading edge. It looks like the ribs are cut to take a hardwood dowel in front but there is also a note calling out "3/8 sq. L. E." that I read to mean "3/8-inch balsa square stock". Reference attached images.

Straighten me out, please.

Either method will work. The hardwood dowel will probably be a little more ding resistant. If using the 3/8" square balsa leading edge, notch the ribs accordingly and after the assembly is dry, radius the leading edge with a sanding block to blend it to the curve of the ribs.

Side note: earlier in this thread I said I lost the front end of my Pronto in a mid-air collision. About a month later, after the farmer had plowed the field under, I found the engine and fuel tank. A complete dis-assembly was required for the clean up, but I'm pretty sure it'll run again.

Mark

Thanks for the reply but if Mr. Robelen intended it convey that the LE could be built either way, why wouldn't he have called it out? Also, as you'll see in the second photo in my last post, it appears that the top wing view shows both the dowel and the balsa LE.

If I had to choose, I'd go with a preformed balsa LE, if they're still available and modify the ribs to match (haven't built since the late 70's.) I've never liked carving a block leading edge down to an approximate airfoil shape. But my first choice is to build it to the designer's original intent, if I can figure that out.

This plan is worthy of converting to a nice 24" x 36" CAD drawing. Maybe I'll start on that tomorrow.

I built mine from a kit back in the day. The kit used the hardwood dowel, if thats any help to you.

Thanks, n00b-E. That settles it. I'll draw the plan with the dowel.

My intent at this point is to create a professional-looking CAD drawing for the Pronto but copyright-free (actually "copyleft".)

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyleft

Could I have some feedback on the number of ribs in the Pronto wing? They look really few and far between to me.

Originally Posted by kingconsulting

Has anybody done this as electric?

Robert

Yep... I drew up one to cut in my CNC machine. Put about 250 Watts in the nose. I need to re-visit this one as my rendition didn't fly nearly as well as the one I built originally. After a fair amount of fiddling with props, etc, it appears the fuse was tweaking in flight. In my quest to make it lighter, I used some pretty soft 1/16" wood for the fuse. Apparently it was a bit too light.

Here's a link to the build of this one: http://www.phlatforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=1825 I'm pretty sure you have to log in to view the pics

I had a Pronto in the mid 90s and LOVED it. It would fly in wind that would ground much larger heavier planes. This one had a Fox .25 in the nose spinning a 9x6 master airscrew.
Loved the plane and nice to hear Dave was such a nice guy.