ORIGINAL: ChrisMH
Well, I had a bit of insomnia this evening, so decided to go ahead and cut a hatch and move my battery forward. Ended up looking pretty good and allowed me to get my battery right up against the firewall.
And...it now balances *exactly* at the aft end of the balance range with *no* additional nose weight. Needless to say, I'm pretty pleased about shaving 10oz off of my Skybolt
Final dry weight: 10lb 6oz.
Now for a nice day...
Chris
ChrisMH do you have any pictures of what you did or can you take some? I'd like to do the same as you but I'm kinda scared to cut into the fuse since I didn't build this plane and I'm not sure where it's safe to do so.
Also can anyone tell me how involved it would be to change out the main gear for something stronger. At 12 lbs dry the main gear is mushy and from what i can tell the wood under the main gear is glued to the fuselage. I haven't stripped the covering to look so I'm not really sure but I don't want to start tearing anything apart without knowing exactly what I'm going to be getting into before I start. The guy who built this plane did a great job with the covering and the build, except for the weight this plane was nicely done, with any luck I'll have some pictures later today.
Murph, there is no smoke on this either, it's just a pig but a good looking pig though and it flies true.