Hi Keith,

That's interesting. About 4 weeks after reading your posting about balancing your F-16 I weighed my components and did some calculations and determined that I was going to have to put my batteries as far forward in the nose as possible to balance mine.

I sent FEJ an email with a picture of Skymaster's nose formers and asked if something similar should have been included with my kit. The US rep. responded that he discussed the issue with the factory and that they would design and make up a set of nose formers and send them to me.

A couple weeks later I received a set identical to those in your picture. I had to knock out the forward former in the fuse and grind down the epoxy fillet in order to mount them. The problem with the way FEJ designed it is that the horizontal former is in the middle, which doesn't leave room for a very large battery pack. If you look at Skymasters nose formers (see picture) you'll notice that the horizontal piece is lower, allowing more room for a battery pack or two.

I'm not done with mine yet. When I get to balancing I'll probably get a couple of custom packs made up to fit. That certainly is preferable to adding lead.

My fin was damaged in shipping and FEJ was very accomodating about sending me a replacement. I also had a couple of other minor issues which they quickly resolved.

By the way, do you have any comments on how good the recommended throws are?

Joe