I finished assembling a Kadet Senior ARF, with a 2-cycle .46, for my wife about 3 weeks ago. Or at least I thought I had! Then I checked the balance and found it to be big-time tail heavy. I had the battery and the receiver forward of the cabin area, against the the former that supports the rear of the fuel tank, at the time. I had to put over 10 ounces of lead into the model, in that location, to balance it correctly!
I don't like heavy hubs for various reasons, didn't have one anyway. Don't like to glue weights to the front of the firewall because I've had them come loose from there, even when epoxied on. Don't like Sig's idea of glueing weights inside the cowl: tried that once, the cowl eventually cracked and lost some of the weights in flight. So I bit the bullet, removed the spinner, cowl, engine and fuel tank, in order to put the battery and weights against the rear of the firewall, along with suitable foam to hold stuff all in place. I alsu used a heavier nosewheel. I was able to cut the extra weight down to about 4 ounces that way. Others might think it was a lot of work to save a little bit of weight but it was worth it to me. I hate dead weight in a model if I can find a way to eliminate all or part of it.
As soon as I got the thing all done the bad weather closed in on our area, so we didn't put the first flight on it until last Monday. It flies well and those big barn-door ailerons provide a lot more roll response than I expected them to at landing speed. That's a damned good thing in a gusty cross wind.
If I ever put another one together, I'd move the servos as far forward in the "radio compartment" as I could and I'd use Goldenrods to move the tail surfaces. A 4-stroke engine might be a good idea too.
Cheers,
CR
jwgfeb wrote:
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