RE: Cloud Bound 4
Hello Mike, My Skybench "viking" also came with a 'Hardwood' (maple?) nose-block, I used my DeWalt orbital sander to rough shape it. Close shaping was done with a regular sanding block with the final shaping done with a foam backed sanding pad. As to using a balsa substitute . . . If the plane is likely to be tail heavy I'd rather use a stronger material up front and a battery with a greater capacity as 'usefull' ballast rather than packing dead weight lead. I hope you're going to strengthen the 'wrist' of the fuse (area just forward of tail group) in some fashion. . . Maybe you could place some 1/8" sheet balsa inside the stick fuse, 6" long, half foward of the Horz. stab LE, half behind. This has been the only area on any plane I've ever built that I've had structural failures with, it's happend to me with four different plane types.
Rick K
LSF 6493