i have a glider, more specifically the filip v. (just the plain glider, not the eletric version.)

im using a hi-start to launch it and it gets up there but i noticed that the nose is too heavy.

if i take my hand of the controls, the nose dips a bit.

now im not much of a builder and even though this is an arf, i had someone put it together.

what i need to do is reduce the weight in the nose but it seems like he put a bunch of small lead balls in the nose. i dont know if he glued them or solder then or what but i see a tight pack of lead balls in the nose. anyone know how i can remove a few of those? they seem "stuck" together.

also, when i take my hands of the controls, the glider should fly straight right? or is it normal for the nose to go down a little?

thanks!!

If the builder put lead weight in the nose I would assume he did that to balance the glider. You should get the plans out and see if the COG is correct. What I'm thinking the problem might be is you need to trim your plane out. But I don't know, it could be a lot of things.

cainebean has a point, check your Center of Gravity. or trim the plane. If that doesn't work get ahold of the builder and have him help you reduce the nose's weight. But as was stated it could be a lotta things. Hope that helps..

thanks for the replys. i did check the CG and it is a little off. When I balance it as the cg, the nose dips a bit. and it makes my plane fly in a "stall pattern" where it kinda dips then fixes itself, then dips, etc...

could it be anythng else? or is the balance off?

If it flys in a stall and dips and recovers, you are trying to fly it too slow. Trim some down elevator and try it. You need to keep the wing flying. Sounds like it is stalling.

flyboy is right, the glider flys very slowly. however, the nose dips and the cg is off.

is there a reason for the slow flight? if i drop the trim a little, the nose will go down more i think. if i give it up elevator, it might go even slower and stall.

If you drop the nose a bit and fly it faster, it will find a good glide angle. If you are trying to fly it too slow with too much elevator, it will drop the nose when it stalls, pick up speed, which will raise the nose, and it will stall again. You need to fly it faster. The only way to do that is not hold the nose up so much. If your CG is way off, it will hunt more too. It should pull gently out of a shallow dive if it is ballanced right.

if i drop the nose to fly it faster, wont it be going down too much?

and my cg is off so that the nose is low, how does that make it hunt more?


thanks for your time and help.

If you fly it in a stall, it will look like it is staying up, but it is falling vertically faster and moving forward slower. If you fly it faster, it moves over the ground faster and utalizes lift better. You don't dive it, just fly it faster. If it is nose heavy, the tail will be trying to lift the nose all the time causing more drag, therefor making it come down faster. If it is tail heavy, the tail is always pushing the nose down, causing more drag there too. If it is ballanced right, the tail just follows and doesn't produce lift in either direction until you tell it to to lift or lower the nose. If the plane is nose heavy and you have it trimmed for a slow speed, as you pick up speed, it will want to lift the nose more causing it to pitch up. If you dive it, after it picks up speed let the stick go. If it comes up really fast it is nose heavy, if it dives more, it is tail heavy. If it pitches up slowly, it is just about right.