HI everyones I'am Bill and I've been flying off and on for a couple of years now and still struggle on landing . I practice landings every couple of laps so I was wounding if I should Balance my Ultra Stick with a 3/4 full gas tank. I have been Balancing it with an empty tank like the manual says. I would like your professional input thanks.

no,

empty, because most landing you do are close to that

it has to be empty......Unless you want to practise landing as soon as you take off...But thats only for practise of landing in a few minutes of taking off..


But seriously it is not recomended.....The best way of balancing is with an empty tank....Make it slightly nose heavy so that even with a full tank it will be balanced......Its also always easier to land a plane in a dead stick situation with a forward CG.

Nothing wrong with landing on a full tank.

Something that could help is have someone you know is a good pilot check the balance in flight. They will know what I talking about. The recommended balance point is not necessarily the best, sometimes not even close.

What ronk 1 suggested is a good idea. The reason most designers plan for balancing with an empty tank is at the end of a flight the CG will be somewhat near what he (the designer) planed to be optimum when landing but of course there is nothing wrong with landing early in the flight.

The CG is constantly moving backwards during any flight and the further back it moves the more pitch sensitive the airplane becomes complicating the landing difficulties.

John

The best way to do it is to put the tank on the CG

Unless one of the pump systems or a Bubbless tank (Tetra or Jett) is used then this is not the best way and just asking for problems.

John

Bill, explain your problems with landing...
Are you sure it has to do with the CG?

Bill

Thanks guys for your replies. About my landings I have none some real good landings with my Stick but the last time I flew it I cut the power to soon and stalled. Thats my problem I stall a lot. I think my run way is to short because if I don't hit it at the beginning of the run way I'll run out and that puts pressure on me to make a perfect landing.

Try doing some slow flight up high to get familiar with the slow flight capabilities. Fly level and take out throttle gradually, keeping the same altitude with adding in elevator. Do this until you sense the plane stalling. After a few times, you'll get the feel for how slow you can fly the plane. With a bit of a breeze, i can get mine to stand still in the air.

I fly an Ultra Stick, and can land it very short if I want to. I don't use flaps, but sometimes I do use forward slips and side slips, which can slow that plane down in a hurry. This plane won't land as slow as a flat bottomed airfoil trainer, but it should be OK for most fields. try some slow flight, and practice slipping, and see how that works for you.

I have my balance point on the CG about 1/2 inch forward of what the manufacturer suggests, and the plane is balanced laterally as well, as both wings are level when i balance it from nose to tail. I often fill up the tank and do nothing but touch and gos, so an empty tank- full tank- it doesn't affect the way the plane lands for me anyway.

How long have you been flying? Can you land other planes better than this one? Hope that helps.

I haven't seen it said specifically, so, the reason you balance with an empty tank is that as the tank empties, the CG moves back. Planes fly ok a bit nose heavy (from the fuel being added forward of the CG), but some planes can become unstable if the CG moves back too far. So, if you balance right "on the edge" with a full tank, as the tank empties, your plane may become unstable.

If you have a pusher or other oddball arrangement that puts the fuel tank behind the CG, then you balance with a full tank.

Many flying wings have the tank on the CG since wings tend to be much more sensitive to CG than conventional setups and even a small CG shift can be have a noticeable effect on performance.

If you want to run huge amounts of fuel, it's not uncommon to have a header tank close to the engine and a larger tank on the CG, or to use a pump such as the perry mico-oscilating (sp) pump.