reemas

hey again.
i removed some nose weight maybe about .1 oz over the past few days by removing some of the lead BBs in the nose of my glider.

my plane weighs about 14.7 oz. now when i fly. my planes nose just drops on its own. i dont want to add too much up elevator to fix this cause it might become too close to stalling.

what confuses me is that i have removed some of the nose weight and now the nose is dropping. according to the manufacturers cg, it is balanced properly at the recommened CG.


what should i do?
add a little weight to the nose or tail?

spooner

reemas.. hi, i dont know to much about your plane but have you checked the wing-insidents(sp) just a guess...spooner

patternflyer1

My Feedback: (11)

I would definitely check the incidence on the stab and wing. Could be your main problem. You can try shimming the wing under the front or back with cardboard shims if needed. What kind of glider is it? Are you flying slope? How windy is it? Does it fly different with different wind speeds? I fly alot of faster slope planes and the flying conditions can make a difference. Is it flying at a constant speed without stalling? Is it just acting like it has down elevator all the time?

jneesy

most manufacturers cg recommendations are Conservative as long as you go back in small increments you will be ok. keep trying you'll find the sweet spot.

reemas

hey i have the filip v glider (v-tail), you can see it here: http://hobby-lobby.com/filip.htm

i fly it off a hi start and in thermals.

basically it has a tendency to drop its nose if i let go of the controls. and that scares me. i dont want to add up elevetor trim to balance it because i think that will make it less efficient.

it flys on the slower side. not like a slow flyer, but its defiantely not fast. just your avg. thermal sailplane.

the most confusing part is that i removed nose weight cause the plane might have been too heavy, and it was unbalanced.

even though the nose is dropping, could it be that the plane it tail heavy? or is it still nose heavy?

and what do you mean by wing incidence? im new to that.
thanks!

Montague

You should trim the plane so that it flys at a constant speed hands-off. If you are constantly holding elevator with your hand, you're doing it wrong. You can control the airspeed of the glider by adjusting the elevator trim in flight. Differnet trim settings will result in faster or slower flight, and a higher or lower rate of descent. Note that faster flight does not always equal faster rate of descent, in fact the opposite is usually true. It sounds to me like you need to work on getting the plane trimmed and flying it smoothly and correctly. I don't think your CG is really the problem.

If you are holding up elevator to keep the nose from dropping, you are doing exactly the same thing as would happen if you trimmed the elevator with a little up, and in fact, you are not nearly as smooth as a set trim would be, so I'd say that you are loosing a lot of efficiency by NOT adjusting the trims for steady flight.

Wing incidence is the angle between the wing and a reference line. In a glider, it makes most sense to talk about the angle between the wing and the horizontal stab, assuming you don't have a full flying stab.

I'm not a glider expert. You might want to check in some glider forums, or find some accomplished glider pilots in your area to help you out in person. Letting an experienced pilot fly your plane around can really help you get the plane working right so you can stop worring about the plane and concentrate on your flying.

rsdonomoore

I would recommend buying a cg machine from towerhobbies.com. They are cheap and that way you can put the wing on your plane and then set the plane on the manf. cg and then see if it tips forward or back. By putting the the balance point on the manf. cg all you have to do it add weight to the front or back and you will be able to balance the plane without being in the air. Hope that helps. That's how I balance all of my planes.

Spaceclam

balance it without fuel in it, if it is electric, with the battery in. the gc should be one third back at the root or at the peak chord of the airfoil. that's the general rule of thumb.

Jim Finn

My Feedback: (2)

First, while in the air adjust the elevator trim until it flys smooth and level. Make sure nothing is shifting inside the plane on launch. Now to find out if it is balanced right leave the trim there on your next launch .Put the plane in shallow dive and let go of the stick. If the plane noses up it is nose heavy and if it noses down it is tail heavy. When you have it right it will SLOWLY level out when you release the stick.