Captmicom

I got ya.. I do still have friends (Older Flyers) that still will put lead shot in the front lips of their cowls to get the CG right. One of them a few weeks ago put almost 2lbs of shot in a 93" wing span Zero. On the maiden flight while landing it bounced once, bounced twice and snapped the cowl off into the carbon fiber prop that was still spooling down. We are still picking up BBs.

Captmicom

smullis

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Hey Cessna owners, I have been watching this thread now for quiet some time and I just thought I might add a hint that might help on your balance issue. I personally do not have the Cessna plane but this works for me on any plane that is real tail heavy. The pilots that are putting in a twin cylinder engine you might not need as much weight up front as the pilots with mounting and using a single cylinder engine.
Of course I assume you are mounting your batteries as far forward as possible which is correct with this plane.
Here is what I have done in the past and still do today if need be. I go to my local full service gas station( If you still have one in your town) or to a tire shop where the mount and balance tires. I ask them for there old tire weights the are throwing away and fill up a sack full as much as you might need.Most places will let you grab all you want.I use a old thin pot that is not to good to prepare food in anymore a one or two quart will do. I just put about 3 or four pounds of tire weights on the stove and melt the lead down.I then use long tongs or equivelent to remove the steel from the molten lead. Wear gloves and you can do this to each piece as it melts or just do one piece at a time until the lead is all melted. While the lead is melting or you can do this before you start, take a good soup can like campbell's or generic steel can and cut the can height all around to about half way down. Put the can on a heat proof surface and then pour in the molten lead and let it set and cool down until firm and cool. I then use tin snips to cut the can off. You will have a piece of lead that is almost 2-1/2"
round and maybe 3 to 4 inches thick. I use a bolt that will go through the bottom of the engine firewall mount with a wingnut on the inside of the engine compartment and washers.I drill a hole the size of the bolt in the middle of the lead weight so it lays flat on the bottom of the engine compartment and is secured with the wingnut. Now with the plane ready for balancing if now the plane is to nose heavy you can either drill holes in the weight or use a saw of somesort to trim down the weight to get your CG as you want.. You are gonna have about 3 to 4 pounds of lead there so trim and cut as needed. Just leave the hole in the middle to remove and replace the weight as necessary and then finally as a permanent hold down.I would set it just so you are a hair nose heavy then fly the plane and if you need to remove more weight just unscrew the wingnut and trim more off and reinstall and test fly again.
This has worked for me and the lead is real soft and easy to work with. Be careful with the heat and lead it will BURN YOU BAD.
I hope this might help some of my fellow flyers out that run into these problems.

Happy flying,
Steve(REDMAN)Mullis

profmb

point well made Captmicom!

profmb

Now this is a nice idea! I have all the lead I need (even though my roof may leak a bit!!...joke)...Yesterday I had a similar idea, and had purchased an enamel metal cup, thinking that the lead my not stick to heat the lead in. I was going to make a ply box for the mould - but maybe your idea with an old can is better. Can't decide, between baked beans or chopped tomatoes for the can - but I will let you know which one comes out best...

Airframe Inventer

Geesh! I just weighed my finished ASM Cessna at 30 pounds.
Anyone have any opinions?
What is your flying weight?

profmb

I will let you know, once I have finished loading up the front end with lead! [:@]

Airframe Inventer

I loaded up the cowl with all my esc, motor, motor batteries, reciver batteries and light system batteries, switches and 1 1/2 pound of weights.

Captmicom

Rick,

Dump out your rock collection!!

Captmicom

Just kiddin!!

Airframe Inventer

Hehe, If I did that, it would definatly be tail heavy...

Captmicom

All Kidding aside, I just weighed my ASM Cessna with a 55cc engine, full of fuel, 2 sub C 3300s, 1 AA 2450, and 1 and ½ pounds of lead at 26.2 pounds ready to fly.

Captmicom

ian51291

HI guys,my motor came today CRRC55 twin,mine has the modified exhausts so they will fit in the cowl completly and comes with rxcel ingnition unit instead of ther own,so i will be able to fit the landing lights in the cowl and not have to cut out the wings,going to start the wings tomorrow,cant make my mind up with the servos either savox or there are ones called Power HD 1501 which are really powerfull but ive not had anything to do with them before,anyone heard or used them.

Ian

Captmicom

Ian,

That is good to here. I don't think that I would want to be cutting into the wing.

Captmicom

profmb

Hi Ian - you will see from my pics that this is what I did. I used Braincube system and switch on my landing lights with a landing condition switch on my Futaba.

ian51291

Hi Profmb,have you fitted the full Braincube system,i was looking at the strobe and anti collision system from Valley Electronics but i dont know how bright there system is in daylight,then i was going to get the landing lights from Aeromodel Lighting,BTW the wings are done and i had the motor running on the bench for the first time,going to put an hour or two on it before it goes in.

Ian

profmb

Hi Ian
Yes I fitted the Braincube system. It runs from a separate 4.8v battery and links to a spare channel on the RX. The lights are very bright. They do a strobe for the wing tips and a beacon for the fin light. It is fairly easy to set up - but the wiring routes were a bit of work. Getting the wires to the fin was the most challenging - but worth the effort. The front landing lights are very good - very intense and fit the mouldings in the cowl perfectly.

The instructions are very good and the telephone support is excellent.

Cheers
Matt

ian51291

Hi Matt,thanks for the info.i was just going to to put a strobe on top of the fus,beacon underneath landing in the cowl and a beacon on the tail fin,wasn't going to bother with the wing navs.how did you get the wires to the top of the fin,i guess the fin is hollow.

Cheers
Ian.

Airframe Inventer

I drilled down from the top of the verticle stabilizer then punched through the
ribs with a push rod and fed the wire through into the rear fuse half.
It only took a few minutes

profmb

Hi Ian , Airframe Inventer - I did mine a bit differently, because as can be seen from your photo I also wanted to get rid of the ugly junction between the fin and the abs fin shroud. The two tones of white really p***d me off. So I stripped off the white film, and then planed down the leading edge of the fin. I then routed a section of 1/4 square balsa so that this created a channel to route the wire. I then shaped the channel to the fin profile. The Braincube system uses a small pc board with the LED set into it. It is then connected to the wire with a standard servo plug. I could see no way of thread this through the fin as Airframe Inventer suggests (I presume that his led is mounted on the end of th wire?). By doing it the way that I did I could then dig out some balsa to accommodate the small pc board and make the connection to the plug.

I then recovered the whole of the fin and abs section in Selotex and sprayed the whole lot in the same white colour. I am very pleaed with the result.

With the wing navs and strobes, I cut the film at each wingtip (and made my cable joins in th void here) and then cut a small access hatch into each of the moulded tips to mount the lights. Then I threaded new cable through the wings, and connected up to the pc boards located within the moulded tips. I mounted each board onto the bottom of a small bit of plastic tube, the top of which was glued to the area where the nav light was fixed. The tube then acts as a shaft to allow the light to pass up the tube to the red/ green nav light.

In hindsight the downside of the Braincube system is the little pc board into which the LED is mounted - and of course the need to connect it up to a servo plug - all of which take up space and make threading through structure really difficult.

Despite this it does lead to a neat solution, and a complete set of lights. I guess it depends on how much trouble you wish to go to.

Cheers

Airframe Inventer

The only lights I have that are LED are the  two front headlights and tail light are rechargeable flashlights, $9 each.
The red and green tip lights are 12v automotive $8

ian51291

HI Matt/Airframe Inventor thanks for the info,it was the little ciruit boards on the Braincube system is what i was concerned about,i might try the ones from Valley Electronics they are only £13 so if they are not that bright ive not lost much and they will be easier to fit,they work off the Rx batt but it will be easy to wire in another and cut the supply from the Rx


Cheers

Ian

profmb

Impressive Airframe Inventer!

Captmicom

Rick,

We just got back from the Jet rally. That was a great show! It was good to see you again. I will expect you to bring that monster out to the Big Bird fly-in in two weeks so we can fly them in formation!!

Captmicom[8D]

Airframe Inventer

Yea! We will need someone to video the flights.
I seem to always be the only one with a camera at times.
I never figured a way to fly and video at the same time.
That would be cool, you could be the leader, I'll be the wing man.
I know how we can tell them apart?
Mine is the heavy one...
Thanks,Richard

Captmicom

That will work!! We can just duck tape your camera to your forehead that way you won’t miss a frame! [:@] I will find someone to film it for us![:-]

Captmicom[8D]

Airframe Inventer

Thats good, that way I won't have glue from the tape on my forhead for days...
People will laugh at me.