This plane is a Ritewing Zephyr II which is made of EPO (Expanded polyolefin) foam, which is pretty durable but it didnt survive much after 10 nose dives into rocky ground. So, I cut off the front and replaced it with EPP (Expanded polypropylene) foam. EPP is somewhat hard to find in at the market because its a relatively new foam. It handles impacts very well, its the future of RC and mini-UAV’s set to replace EPO.

I managed to find some at Tj Maxx for $15 of all places, in the form of a “yoga roller”, some sort of thing that people use for “exercise”. Here is an Amazon link for EPP foam yoga rollers. Just get the cheapest, its gonna get all cut up anyway.

Its pretty straight forward:

1. cut off nose
2. add horizontal fiberglass or carbon fiber spar under and in front of battery tray
3. cut and fit EPP nose
4. glue on with Gorilla Glue. This glue is one of the few glues that sticks to EPP.
5. re-cover with Ritewing shrink covering film. This film is the only film that I know of that sticks well to EPP.
6. done