Repairing an EPO RC Plane

After crashing an EPO RC plane, how do you repair the damage and get it flying again?
Well here's the way I fixed the HobbyKing Dolphin EDF after an unfortunate encounter with the runway.
This was also a great opportunity to try out flexible CA glue and I must say it's excellent; perfectly suited to such repairs.

[@pogoreviews5352]

I love watching your videos because you're passionate about the hobby. My two tips are as follows. First, there are pins that florists use to attach the groom's boutineer to the lapel of his coat. These are around 100mm (4 inches) and have a big, fat plastic head. I find these pins at craft store and sundry stores. They are usually very inexpensive. I use them to hold foam together after gluing. The tip is to push them all the way in and have the head sit firm against the foam. I usually let it sit overnight. It works on everything including epoxy. You have to tug to get them out with dried epoxy. The other tip is there is a certain type of foam that goes around the pipes of water heaters. It's a very soft, spongy foam. It's about 1cm thick. If you have the space it's probably not a bad thing to wrap a battery with or put in the nose of a plane.

[@loydta]

Excellent Bruce. I'm an old stick and film, 72mhz guy just getting back in the groove after a few years off. I have been totally lost on fixing these freaking new foamies! Great educational vid for us old timers, 2 thumbs up man from KY !

[@MrJototojo]

Loved the "yesterday" "twelve months ago" joke, haha. Keep up the videos! Thanks Bruce.

[@MrGringu]

Hello Bruce my name is Keith Poulton from the llittle island of Malta and I would like to thank you for all the info you pass on. Although I`ve been flying models for the last 50 years there is always something else to learn. I would like to pass on a tip regarding CA glue. In your vid regarding repairs to rc planes in the 11.39th minute you mentioned tapping the bottle to settle the glue back down the spout. Well what I do also, is to wrap a small piece of cloth or rag on top of the spout and let it soak up the residue on top. Within seconds this hardens and one can twist the rag off and hey presto this cleans the whole top of the bottle. Maybe you can pass it on in some other vid. Thanks and keep the information coming.

[@spocktra50]

Very impressive repair Bruce,although you forgot one crucial ingredient .Red wine. Charlie swears by it but the downside is,the models usually end up with more wings than when you started. I am going to get some of that flexi ca.Looks great.Cheers mate.

[@Horsedoc15]

I hear Gin helps the flexi CA setup!

[@loydta]

I have no doubt wine is involved in some of Charlie's concoctions :)

[@ln130smurf]

loydta yeah right.. what ever it is, is a lot stronger than wine!!! lol

[@chrisfort7340]

Bruce, great video and it's withstanding the test of time! Barry is lucky to have such a great friend to repair his plane. I'm new to the hobby and cartwheeled my Dynam A-10 recently. The foam fuselage was so bent up that it was easier to remove the electronics, hit it with hot kettle water over the sink to get it back to being straight. Now to reassemble it. Anyway, thanks for the tips on the filler and wrapping the wing spare! Happy Flying! Cheers from SoCal!

[@2007crf450r]

thanks bruce this is possibly one of the best videos ever especially for me since I like to destroy front ends on my bixler 2 thanks

[@rdegulielmo]

excellent video! I'm having to repair my first nose job and this has helped tremendously. I would have like to have seen you sculpt that new nose!

[@MrLewis36]

I really appreciate this video... would have been nice to see how you scuplted the nose piece though.

[@patrickcooper2760]

Thanks for all the repair advise,not quit so scared to crash my A-10. I do auto body repair for a living so this should be a breeze. Thanks again. Cooper

[@sloperdude]

I never would have thought to use light Spackle to fill holes in an EPO aircraft. Before laminating film became the norm for covering EPP slope foamies, I used it to fill the pores in EPP so when I covered the glider with Ultracote it was nearly as smooth as a fiberglass plane. Laminating film gives a smooth enough surface on it's own. Good point about using strapping tape to stiffen flexible EPO fuselages. It works very well, barely adds any weight, and can also be used to straighten fuselages that hang to one side, as well as stiffening stabilizers (and wings, as you've shown.)

[@biconguy]

I recently purchased a couple of foam core-based models from flite test.com and used some of the leftover foam core sheets to repair (with a hot glue gun) the internal side of a fuselage repair. It's very strong and rigid and works as well as carbon rods if none are available to you. A note about hot glue: it is stronger when the excess is spread flat with a scrap piece of foam core. Spreading the excess over a broader surface adds tensile strength to the repair while also making it a bit more attractive.

[@andreasheij]

I've seen that you can use CA glue and baking soda to create a monster connection and make stuff look as if it's new. Just put some baking soda onto the CA that you just applied and let it dry. It becomes absolutely rock hard! Did it this weekend with the wheels of my RC car. 20 minutes later it was up and driving again :-) Don't breathe in the fumes though by the way :)

[@EverydayKindaGuy]

Great Stuff is also a nice patch, if you end up with large chunks missing. Some packing tape for a form, spray in a little foam, adjust as needed.

[@edge13429]

Barry will be so happy to get his Dolphin back as good as new!

[@rcjoseb]

Great idea using the spackle. The wing repair came out very nice

[@thelongestday64]

Absolutely brilliant! Helped me A LOT!!! Thanks!!! Bought that filler and fiber glass tape and my plane looks like new (only had minor damages, but still)...

[@BashMonkeyRC]

When I snapped part of the horizontal stabilizer on my Bixler 2, I just glued in along the break, stuck wooden skewers at a couple different angles, snipped the excess bits off and dabbed a dot of glue over em. Brings barely any attention to them being there and stabilizes really well

[@MrTbone127]

Awesome job Bruce it looks NEW! cant even tell Barry stuffed it up!!!

[@davedeja]

A tip to make your wing tips and nose area a little more abrasion proof...Just apply a coat of 5 minute epoxy and smooth it with a brush to keep the road rash to a minimum. You can paint it after it's dry to hide it or accent it. When it gets worn just peel it off and re-apply. It worked wonders on the undersides of the wing tips on my FMS P-51.

[@pauld7056]

Very informative video. Thank you. I will be keeping a copy of your chart handy in my plane room. For those really enthusiastic people you can get a battery operated hot glue gun you can use in the field.

[@LorenzoTheFisherman]

wow pretty impressive...sad tho to see that you cut the part with the front fixing. Amazing result and i would have loved to see it step by step!

[@daveymagic1]

Looks good Bruce, with the carbon rod I build and fly I.F.O. I use dental floss. It tends to be flatter, and so strong it will cut your hands if you try and break it. The best deal of head with it was 200 metres for £1.00 for pound shop. It is poor man's Kevlar. Waxed or none waxed doesn't seem to matter. Have a good Christmas everyone.

[@Soldier53flyer]

Great job Bruce! I would not know it was crashed after you put a little paint on it.

[@WyllSurfAir]

Bruce. Your so good and helping the enviorment, savung dolphins and all

[@yangexue6596]

Wyll Surf Air haha

[@MrDavcrockett]

Nice job fixing it back to normal ole'man! Awesome!

[@Servicehans]

Thanks for the video, lots of helpful tips! I often use a syringe with or without a cannula to glue small parts together. With the cannula it lets you dispense the glue to small/otherwise unaccessable spots and its quite economical as well. :D

[@qwetry-j2u]

Probably the most interesting part (reconstructing the nose of the fuselage with... some magic materials) is missing :(

[@RoboTekno]

Your videos are so great. They're the best RC reviews and how to videos on KZbin that I've seen. Keep them coming :-) They're enjoyable to watch and it's great to hear your opinions. I really hope you get your wings back too. I've been looking forward to your flying review videos :'(

[@connieindahouse]

That fix on the nose of the plane is absolute magic! How!!??

[@zeemanjr]

Hey Bruce, Very good video and thanks for getting me on to the spocktra50 channel here on the tubes of you I'm thoroughly entertained every time I watch a new video of there's. I have also been going back through some of there earlier vids cause I only recently subbed them. Thanks again. Regards, Pete.

[@thephantomharanguer]

I love the concept of 'near enough'

[@dwexoticmaple]

also spray kicker on one half and ca on other where possible works a treat then put toghther

[@toddedson5782]

Good job Bruce looks like a good repair to me. Keep these videos going

[@mumforddale1]

i did this motor upgrade to my dolphin jet and its a beast on 3s havent tried it yet on 4s!thumbs up!

[@WildCaptures]

Great repair tips 👍👍👍

[@prairieskycam]

Great video! Thank you for putting it together and sharing!

[@InterWebGuy99]

Lots of good tips in this video, but you really shouldn't have skipped the part where you had to reshape the nose of the plane. I suspect that rebuilding and shaping a completely new piece of foam to the front of the plane is far more challenging than any of the repairs you did step by step. It was a disappointing ending to just speed right by that part.

[@zviki68]

InterWebGuy99 Yeah, and how he fixed the edge of the wing. I think that everyone knows how to glue two parts together with superglue.

[@InterWebGuy99]

You probably can't chew bubble gum and tie your shoes at the same time. That's way above the level of mental acuity I have you pegged at.

[@zviki68]

InterWebGuy99 You can't even enter on the scale with your mental activity, because I agree with you and just say that he show how to glue two parts together almost on the entire video...

[@InterWebGuy99]

Okay, I thought you were being sarcastic. Sorry, dude. Hopefully the guy who did this video will get a clue!

[@MrSilverback62]

Feather light spackle! Genius! Keep the beard. Looks good on you. Makes you look a year or two younger than Barry.

[@diver674]

Nice Job Bruce , it looks good

[@iandavidson99]

Look eBay/Amazon etc for "Everbuild Mitre Fast". It's basically EPO-safe thick CA glue and comes with an aerosol kicker. It's very cheap and very strong! I use nothing else now.

[@SaToMojo]

Loved ur video Bruce. i myself crash on regular bases lol, so i got prettty good at repairs, to a point that i keep all kinds of foams to build & repair, i keep foams from boxes, from meat packs from the supermarket (great to build small light models), i also bought big blocks & sheets of polystyrene. Love to use foam, good material to experiment structural shapes. Right now im building a EDF glider made of foam (looks like EPP maybe,not, sure) anyway i painted the underwings for contrast and the paint ate the foam, i manage to stop the process by having fans blowing air at it strongly, damage is light. I would really like if U could teach us a bit on paints & their level of "corosion", wich ones r best, the lightess ones, etc. BTW thnx for the ONETIME* filler trick, i was using shaped foam to fill.

[@BRIANFORWARD1]

The nose on the plane why didn't you use white expanding foam.....works for me sticks like poo to a blanket

[@perfectlylonely]

Would have enjoyed watching the reshaping of the nose section. Perhaps another video?

[@xjet]

Well it was pretty boring -- 20 minutes of carving away with an xacto knife :-)

[@RolexDSSD]

Excellent Bruce! Well done.

[@one4stevo]

Brilliant Video Bruce.

[@marhar2]

Great video, learned a lot! And thanks for the spocktra50 note, subscribed to them now.

[@WhiteRocket918]

Be aware the Hobbyking Flexible CA melted the foam on my Hobbyking Skyfun which as far as I know is made from EPO. Other than that a very helpful video (y)

[@thruvertigo229]

Is it appropriate to use carbon fiber rods to reinforce the nose of your aircraft after a nasty crash where the nose has almost completely broke free of the fuselage? It's a p51 mustang 1.2 Thanks Bruce!! I love your channel!!!!!

[@5c0u53]

Lightweight filler (spackle ) mixed with water based floor varnish is pretty good when repairing epo.

[@CraigKarenMathew]

If any one wants a good glue for fixing foamies I have always used Selleys All Fix, It is flexible,a great gap filler,tacks off fast, cleans up in water, is very close to the colour of foam and sticks foam together strong as

[@RobB_VK6ES]

Enjoyed this vid Bruce, very timely as I have an AXN (built to spec per your video series) with a slightly bent nose so I was hoping to see your method of heating to straighten the Dolphin out. I am just getting back into RC after a long lapse, certainly pre foam era. I was inspired by the multirotor/FPV/aurdupilot cocktail. I have a basic Quad with APM 2.5 which I am coming to grips with so bought the AXN to get some stick time. All along I have been used the products which you like and have not been dissapointed. The Taranis for example, a great radio for the dollars, not quite as well moulded as it's spiritual father the JR and the flappy paddles could use some fine tuning. Programming it is certainly different to the mainstream radios but not insurmountable. One upside to the grounding is you seem to have really upped the output of content lately which is good for the viewers, no doubt you have a different take on that:)

[@byroboy]

You should see the nose of my AXN. First 2 flights saw it go straight into trees! The second one involved a hobby tree climber to get it down. He dropped in straight on the nose pushing the battery back almost 2 inches!

[@kennethpappas]

Hi Bruce, When i do crack repair i first run the glue then press the cracked pieces together then run tooth picks thru both parts across the crack then use plastic vise to hold together and let dry. Is this a good method mate?

[@aspectcarl]

awesome really enjoyed and learnt alot from this video - thank you

[@aldoyosbel1728397263]

Hey guys, I was wondering if there is any light way material that I can fill up a gap on epo or epp plane. Thanks

[@BillGatliff]

"Looking very secondhand..." 😂

[@BikerDon2]

At the start you mentioned 'spoc 250 channel' (or similar) and alex and 'charlie the chimp'. What was that actually? Been searching, not found it yet. The subtitles didn't help either. Edit: OK found it now.....

[@jsvno]

The experience we have brougth with us from balsa bashing Bruce, but I want to see the pulsejet mounted on this plane - convert to V-tale?

[@extansegura]

excelent video bruce!! Thanks!!

[@mumforddale1]

whats holding the motor on?

[@glastan3]

Haha I just read your t-shirt, lol gold Bruce

[@g0arl]

Excellent Bruce thanks

[@mickoberhaus7543]

You know how gorilla glue tends to expand, well of you aren't filling gaps then use gorilla glue, but before it starts to bubble up put blue painters tape over the crack that your repairing. 30 minutes later you can remove the tape and trim excess with modelers knife.

[@sziltner]

👍 The most fun part of the RC hobby....anyway IMHO!

[@KevinsChili]

I really enjoyed this video but when you sculpt the new nose i would have liked to of seen a time lapse of you doing it.

[@sleepy-if7iz]

thank for the tip on the c.a. bottles,i wipe the tip ,but did not tape the bottle down,thank again

[@brucewallin1021]

Bruce,great video. Especially the EPO repair with standard CA. Question where did you get the flexible CA?

[@starlight-ks8yc]

+Bruce Wallin Watch the video again he said he got it from hobbyking

[@blackbirdboy1]

Yeah, Alex Spocktra50 is better at fixing things than flying them. Unless he does it on purpose for the camera? Maybe he just needs to junk those rubbish Orange Rx & the Spectrum Tx & stick with the 9X & FrSky stuff. Apparently he is just to tight to replace all the Rx's!!! Great video as always. By the way, what filler can you use on foam? Never thought to use a filler on them, you're fix looked like new. Mine tend to look like Frankenstein's monster!

[@sirlordwhitman]

thats an awesome plane. that dolphin. I fly it in near 20 mph winds and it doesnt phase it one bit

[@BrigzyFPV]

How did you heat the fuse to straighten it out? Water? Great vid thx. :-)

[@EddieVichta]

Hmm. I expected to see technique how to do repairs. But I saw only litle of glueing. Yes I saw good results, but not how to do it.

[@DrOksalev]

Learned a lot! Thanks!

[@TheLonnieharding]

GREAT JOB sANTA MERRY XMAS

[@cloudsplitter24]

Great Stuff Bruce, thanks!

[@SVELFARO]

Great repair vid thanks Santa :)

[@thephantomharanguer]

What a great video thank you so so much

[@robertcigan]

Hi Bruce, really useful video, thanks for that. About the pulse jet - aren't you afraid of melting the tail if you gonna use pulse jet on such a foamy plane? As they run pretty hot, I'd expect the exhaust gas to be hot enough to melt the foam right?

[@my_dear_friend_]

I know, it's been 9 years and you probably already know. Just in case you don't ... This is not a pulse jet. It's an EDF (electric ducted fan).

[@CrackerMcGillicuddy]

I would've liked to have seen you using the heat gun and reshaping the nose. Isn't the pulsejet going to melt that foam plane? Especially the tail.

[@xjet]

I'm going to change the pulsejet Dolphin to a V-tail -- for very obvious reasons ;-)

[@WVRetreat]

***** Oh, I see. I was wondering how you were going to keep the pulsejet from melting the tail. Nice job, Bruce.

[@steelydanfan100]

Way late to the comment fracas here, but I agree with other commenters that it would have been great to at least show a snippet of the nose sanding/shaping. I wasn't even aware that spackling could have been used in a repair as this. Perhaps you could do a "nose job" follow up !

[@J2onton]

Still looking at this info, 9 years on. Crashed one today.!

[@boomerangfreak]

looks like the dolphin got himself a new mouth ;). The main problem I have is that I so far only have micro sized planes so repairing gets a lot harder since the main concern start to be the weight. I now have quite some repairs on 1 wing of my micro geebee making it tip to that side very fast and whenever I crash again it just tends to break at the exact same spots of the wing that is already way to heavy.

[@sloperdude]

Add a little weight to the other wingtip, even if it's just a dime. Both wings should balance. Better to add a little weight than have it tip stall.

[@boomerangfreak]

it really doesn't tip stall and for now I could solve it with a little more trim but its mainly that when it is crashing and there is now a whole lot more weight on one wing making it way more fragile.

[@daxdadog]

I'll be curious to see how you keep from melting the tail off with the pulsejet. Not that I doubt you. You obviously are quite good at meeting challenges.

[@lenlewis5005]

I think that you will find that is an EDF !

[@BRIANFORWARD1]

EXPANDING WHITE FOAM....... LIGHT WEIGHT.. EPO FRIENDLY STRONG AS AN OLD BOOT FILLS ANY GAP. EASY TO CARE INTO SHAPE...

[@mikem1959]

I take it you tested the aileron servo's before you glued everything back in the wings..

[@rcdad3491]

Great work! Has Roddy seen this?

[@CoyoteFPV]

Hehehe the Spoktra50 guys got a mention, great bunch arn`t they :)

[@Ladybirdsin16mm]

Whos Charlie? Or was it Eric? They the top repairs?

[@garyseeseverything8615]

Cool thank you!

[@Liofa73]

Good job!

[@MPrentice]

good job

[@midasg1]

I have an EPO plane with a big crack near the motor mount, someone adviced me to use 30 min. epoxy. Is this the best glue for the job?

[@xjet]

It's been my experience that epoxy doesn't stick too well to EPO. If it's a crack that closes up nicely with pressure, I'd give that flexible CA a try - otherwise use some polyeurethane and that should do the job nicely.

[@midasg1]

***** Thanks for the advice, Can I buy polyeurethane from HobbyKing? Or do you reccomend an other brand?

[@ronbouslagh5017]

Midas Gossye Gorrilia glue sold most everywhere in US.

[@dwexoticmaple]

i got gap filling flex ca but only in black not clear

[@MPrentice]

why dint you use actavatior?

[@perfectlylonely]

Fast Forward?

[@terrystevenson4363]

What is the name of the filler you showed toward the end of your video

[@starscreamer47]

This plane is not suitable for EDF setup cuz, the airframe has to much drag. EDF efficiency depends on speed. The EDF efficiency drops if the air frame has too much drag and put a toll on the battery and the power plant. Your better off with a propeller systems.

[@rafaeltorres2886]

You said how you love to repair models then you decided against making or avoiding making more repairs

[@sandnessmj]

"had a bit of an accident with it yesterday....ahem....12 months ago..." Hahaha

[@joemills1624]

Cool

[@jsvno]

Not a V-tale of course, but a V-tail...