ORIGINAL: highhorse
1 pound of weight = 1 pound of effective thrust gain for that model right? Or am I wrong here?
Well, I am a sort of clumsy builder who OVER does almost everything during the build, so I can't address weight
reduction. But I think that from a purely theoretical standpoint that losing a pound of weight will equal a pound of thrust when purely vertical, becoming exponentially less noticable as you transition to level where the top end speed will be limited by the cumulative components of the various flavors of drag. The extra drag caused by incrimental weight is a tiny fraction of the total drag at high speeds.
It's also worth noting that completely independent of thrust, one pound saved is the same as FOUR pounds during a 4G pull, reducing the induced drag a lot and helping the model retain energy. In full scale aerobatic competition, I've seen folks in the upper classes sweat about 10 pounds of extra fuel (!) onboard a 1600 pound airplane cus they don't want to lug it around during the sequence.
lets not forget. more weight = more stress during maneuvers which over time shortens the lifespan of the airframe. Alot of the full scale aero guys are weight restricted for certain G ratings b/c of airframe structural constraints as well.
I'd rather look at weight as longer airframe life than better performance.. the performance increase is just a plus
