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Old 10-09-2002 | 08:57 PM
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uonlylivetwice
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Default question on balancing an aircraft

I just can't intuitively get comfortable with this one. Say you mount an engine laterally, and find that the plane balances on it's pitch axis, but is heavy to the right on it's roll axis, and it is likely due to the sidesaddle engine mount. It almost seems to me you might want to add weight first to the cowl to get the roll axis balanced, and then a little to the tail to get the pitch axis back to balanced. Somehow putting weight out on the left wing on the spar, so that it won't affect the pitch, but will offset the roll, seems wrong. You end up with a plane that is heavy in the right side of the cowl and left wing, but balances in total. Am I making this way too complicated??