After the Cap 232 crashed and the crankshaft was straightened on the G-23, the engine was installed in a Hangar9 PT-19 ( now discontinued, surprise! ). This model was sold to a club member who had recently earned his wings. One day, it veered to the left on takeoff due to a crosswind and proceeded to the edge of the field. It was pulled off the ground on the ragged edge of a stall. Shortly after, it dropped a wing and cartwheeled into the ground. Being an ARF, it did not use scale airfoils, at least not at the wingtip, which I was sure contributed to the tip stall. I offered to rebuild the wing ( redesign it really ), with correct airfoils and washout. The original model did not have any visible washout, that I could see.
This is where I go off about ARFs and "scale" wing design. Without plans, you don't know how the airplane was designed or constructed. There's a general consensus among modelers that scale airfoils don't work well on models. This is a myth. The real airplane in this case, not only had a higher camber wing section at the tip ( NACA 4409 ), but also had a good 2.7 degrees of washout, from just outside the fairing near the fuselage to the end of the aileron, both of which were not present on the model and would surely make it fly better, not worse!
With some information about the real airplane in hand, the wing was re-designed with 4 degrees of washout and a +1 degree average incidence, so +3 at root centerline to -1 at the theoretical tip. I had the wing ribs laser cut by Martin Rousseau of MR Aerodesign.
It was decided to convert it into a PT-26 Cornell, with enclosed cockpit. My dad was bored and wanted a winter project, so he constructed the wing and canopy. The engine needs to be test run and then hopefully the airplane will fly again this summer, better than before!
