quote:

ORIGINAL: al

With the DA 100 your weight should fall within the 25 to 27 pound range depending on hardware, servos, batteries, exhaust system. 25lb and below You will need to consider one of the light 100 twins or a single cyclinder engine. This is where you would pick up the most weight savings.

I like titanium pushrods but if your looking to save weight use carbon fiber, tail wheel assemblies vary greatly from pratcially nothing to over a pound, Main landing gear wheels and hardware. Wheel pants mounts, Control horns all are different weights.

We supply a .065 aluminum wall wing and tail tube. I don't do it for weight savings but for strength. There is an option to replace that with carbon fiber for additional savings.

These would be some of the areas to consider if you really need to cut down on weight.

Here is another thing to consider. sometimes the lighter it is, it can have an adverse effect on the way it performs. Now you have to consider inertia in manuevers, (snaps) wind effect, stall speed and effect that will have on total performance.

we all believe that the lighter the better in planes, engines and servos. but consider something has to be sacrificed when making it lighter. On an engine do we leave out a bearing or lighten a crank to paper thin and hope it won't flex or break, Airplanes do we leave out a former or use lighter material such as balsa instead of spruce. maybe it won't twist when doing a snap or roll. or maybe when we pick it up or fly it, it breaks a stringer. Its all a compromise.

Sorry to be so winded but those would be areas on any plane to consider when trying to make it as light as possible.

Al
JTEC/RADIOWAVE

quote:

ORIGINAL: extratorker

So it sounds like you like the way the airplane flies but your main gripe is it weighs more then advertised? My Panzl (ARF version) weighs 28.5 lbs with full cannisters, 2 8611 per wing,1 per elevator and 2 on the rudder plus a tray, 2 2400 fromecos w/ regs and 1 for the ignition. I've got a DA 100, Mejzlik prop,carbon spinner and tube. Kavan wheels and a lightweight tailwheel along with a foam lightweight pilot. I think one thing that manufactuers cant be liable for is the variances in the manufactuering process, i.e. wood weights,foam weight and especially the amount of glue used. On a sheeted foam wing and tail I've seen as much as a 1 lb difference between one set and a identical set (different airplane).

Now I've owned many other arfs and kits in this size range and so far my panzl has had the lowest weight. I had one arf that came out to 32lbs and a kit built plane that was 31 lbs and they still flew well. My Panzl at 28.5 flies very light and is an absolute vertical monster. I've even owned a composite 33% plane that was supposed to weigh as little as 22lbs but it came in at 27 lbs with less equipment then what I've got in the Panzl.

Another question would I would ask is your plane a kit or an arf? The reason I ask is I built a kit version also,and I ended up with a heavier airframe then what I did with the arf. The only thing I can figure out is that I used too much glue and went overboard with the graphics (don't laugh, 9oz I weighed them) and a little too heavy with the paint and clear coat(wanted it real shiny).

So the final result of all this is,yes the airplanes are weighing more then originally advertised(talked with Kevin at Jtec and was told they are revising the web to reflect this), but in all fairness the airplanes still fly phenomenally at the average weights they are coming in at.

quote:

ORIGINAL: extratorker

I meant to ask earlier,what kind of batteries are you running?

quote:

ORIGINAL: extratorker

There's one at the field running stock components. We'll have to see what his is weighing in at. Part of the point I was trying to make was the whole thing about variances in the actual build of the plane. If your talking arfs and prototypes which is probably where the original weight comes from, then perhaps when the factory delivers the first couple for testing they are the absolute best example they can put forth so they are assured of getting the contract or what not. I don't really know a whole lot about how that works. Once in production and you have various people building, they're not all going to be exact mirror copies and maybe one guy uses more glue then the next. Maybe the balsa supply is a different weight then the previous. How many times have you built a kit and had the same size pieces of balsa sheet have incredible differences in weight? I think thats the point I was trying to make.