I thought I had my Tiger 2 balanced and went out today to fly it for the first time. When I checked it at home the CG point was fine according to the instructions (or so I thought). When I placed the plane on the ground the tail cluncked! That didn't happen on my pool table at home! Seems I check the CG point right side up instead of upside down. Anyway when I tried to add weight, I didn't have enough. Adding 6 oz still didn't balance the plane front to aft. I have plenty of room to move the engine further out on the motor mount but I'm looking for some direction. Has anyone encountered this with the ARF version of the Tiger 2 and if so how much weight was added?

The Tiger 2 will have a tendency to rest on its tail when balanced
properly. All it takes is a little bump to make it sit back, and that
might be what you're encountering. Have you flown it? I built the
kit for my son, and should have made it a taildragger because it
drags the tail on landing . Flight charactersitics are fine, however, and a little down elevator while taxing will keep the nose down. Balancing the plane so that it sits well on the ground will likely make it tail heavy in the air. Hope this helps.

Have Fun, FrankB

Thanks for the reply. I haven't flown the plane because I thought the CG point was way off. I'll check it again and give it a go.

Thanks

My first one did the same thing. I made my second one a tail dragger. You're allright. I think you're supposed to check a low wing's CG on it' back though.

I just finished my Carl Goldberg Tiger 2 ARF, what a nice kit! I'm setting up my throws & Radio tonight. BUT when I balanced I did it like it was sitting on the wheels. You mean it should have been upside down when I balance? WHY? You would think you want to balance in the config it would be stalling, fly, etc. (PS I guess I will Have to read closer!) Is this true on my other low wing planes. (P-47 & P-51? - have not flown them yet, going to train on the low wing Tiger)

Thanks again,

Sheldon

I just bought a CG machine from GP and they state to balance low wing planes upside down. I'd have to think their experience would beat my two years of inexperience. I'll give it a try. My friend's Tiger 2 kit was balanced upside down and flies great.

On a low-wing airplane, the plane's mass is above the wing,
and is sensitive to tipping. Hang it upside down, and this
tendency disappears. High-wing planes have the mass below the
wing, so they can be balanced right side up. You WILL get a correct CG either way, it's just easier not to fight the pendulum
effect you get with the mass above the wing. Hope that makes sense. Having the mass above the wing also effects the way
a plane is designed, but I'll let a more qualified aeronautical engineer explain why !! Just briefly, it's part of the reason
high-wings don't need as much (sometimes ANY) dihedral as
low wing planes. Next time you pass an airport, look at ALL the
dihedral a low wing like a Piper Cherokee has, and ten look at a
Cessna 172.

Have Fun, FrankB

The Manual has the CG at 3-1/2" to 4-3/8" back from the leading edge of the wing. With such a large range would it benifit to lean to one or the other side of those numbers or do like I normally do and put it right on the money at 3-15/16"?

PS are you guys using the control Throws at the books specs?

Ailerons Low: 1/4" High: 3/8"
Elevator: 3/16" & 5/16"
Rudder: 9/16" on both?

Some how I wrote Ailerons 3/8", Elevator 3/8", Rudder 1" and expo at -30 in my manual. Can't remember if someone told me that or what. (must be getting old!)

Thanks

Sheldon

But you'd be safer to have the GC a little on the forward side for the first flight. The plane is very responsive with the rates you've
listed, except the rudder. Give it all the throw you can: it's not
very effective. The elevator could probaly go a bit further on high rates as well. One thing I've discovered on test flights, is having a
little extra throw can REALLY help out of trim planes. I give LOTS of lessons and test fly lots of planes. I'm often in a situation where, for example, I've moved the trim tab full left, and the plane is still banking right. Nothing that can't be handled, but if
the plane elevator tab is full UP, and I'm still holding UP stick ...
Since you didn't build the wing, you'll have to fly it to discover
warps during assembly. It flies pretty much like a Sig 4Star40, but
w/o the tendency to float on landing. It can slow down quite a bit w/o stalling on landing, and your ailerons can become rather unresponsive if set on LOW rates. If you experience this, increase landing speed or switch to high rates.

Like I said, it's very forgiving, and your first flight should be
uneventful......unless you call FUN eventful!!!!!

have Fun, FrankB

My Tiger 2 ARF did the same thing....it was balanced properly but very light on the nose wheel. One thing I did to counteract the effect was to make sure the nose gear was down as far as possible, to where the spring part of the gear was almost touching the fuselage. Just make sure it's not touching and your nose wheel turns freely. The plane will sit with a little bit of a front rake. It has no effect on the way the plane takes off or lands, but it helps to keep that nose down.

Mike

Hi, does the Tiger2 ARF come set up so that you can make the plane a tail dragger? The CG site doesn't seem to give a whole bunch of information on their planes. Also are the the ailerons set up for 2 servos or 1? Thankx for the info, Fast!

The Tiger 2 ARF does come "setup" for conversion to tail dragger. It has blind nuts installed in the tail for the assembly to bolt on. you would need to purchase tha Kalt (?Spelling?) main gear and tail wheel assembly and your set. The Ailerons are set up for one servo in each wing so you would need two channels or a "Y" cable. I don't have the CG info here but will check for you when I get home. It's a nice plane.

Goldwing, I think the gear and tailwheel assembly for taildragger conversion is called "Klett" if I recall correctly.

Mike

My son's Tiger 2 does the same thing. With a full tank of fuel it taxis OK, but after landing it's light on the nose gear. If you put too much weight in the nose you may have to increase the elevator throw. We had problems flaring on landing until we did that.