Maybe I'm Freak............

However, in effort to keep the planes as light as possible, I have started weighing everything.

I bought Flip from buddy and it seemed more nose heavy than my other Flip's. Well, I really haven't looked inside the plane since I bolted the wing on, but on a recent trip I had to take the plane apArt, so I noticed all this foam under the tank.

Today I ripped it out, and all this foam kept comming out, so I weighed it and it blew my mind........2.3 onces, IN FOAM.

I replaced it with piece that weighed .2 onces.

I know I m always trying to loose weight, thats why I use lot of Velcro for mounting receivers nd batteries.

2 onces here, 2 ounces there, few ounces lost in un-needed wood, 3 ounces in lighter wheels, next thing you know, you lost over half pound.

I know what you mean, that foam is really heavy. I use the type of lightweight foam that they make pipe insulation from. I get 10' of the stuff for less than a buck at Home Depot.

Jason

What people fail to realize is that even a few ounces can make an ENORMOUS difference in the way the planes fly. Anything you can do to reduce the wing loading is a benefit.

Case in point: I recently spent about 8 hours lightening my WM Extra 300s 1.20 to eliminate the tailweight that I added to get it to fly the way I wanted. To make a long story short, I removed some wood, shifted some things around and ended up reducing the weight of the plane by about 7 oz. It flies so much better that I was absolutely astonished. I can add MUCH more elevator now without the plane wanting to snap out and it improved ALL other flying characteristics as well. Much better slow flight, etc, etc, etc.

The whole time I was performing the mods I asked myself 'Self, is what you're doing worth the effort?'. After flying the plane I knew that it was.

EVERY OUNCE COUNTS!

-Tom

I definitely agree with the low weight concept. Once you know the difference, you'll never go back...

Think about the effect of say another person in a Cessna..

these are small airplanes and they have small wing areas, so naturally they should be light light light!

I have practiced building light airplanes for many years now but in control line. And it has filtered over to r/c now ecspecially with 3d. The lighter the plane the better it flys ..PERIOD..
When building from a kit, start by weighing everything before you start any building at all. The engine, muffler, all bolts and hardware, fuel line, tank, wheels, landing gear, wheel collars, fuel dots, spinner, prop, I mean everything. Once all of these items have been weighed you will know how much weight you have left to build the airplane to fall into the target weight. So if you are building from a kit, now you can start replacing the wood with contest grade light. If you are scratch building then I hope you are already using contest grade wood.
This really works and you will notice the first entire plane you use this method on will be one of your better projects when it takes off the first time.. Hope this helps some of you, BAD ANDY