Jammer and Wings, thanks for the advice. I know that people have said that some of the sim-planes in RF fly fairly realistically (I found this to be true of the trainer) but that others are way off, for example, if I thought flying a turbine F-4 was THAT easy I'd buy one tomorrow).

I'll pick up one of those GP balancers (or trying hanging it from a wire) and see if I get the same result as with the two methods I've used so far, e.g. on fingertips both inverted and upright and balanced on a crude cardboard box with cutouts. BTW, I am using the dowl connectors that came with the kit just because alternatives were not readily available in my corner of Japan. That could have added to the tail weight (compared with you guys that replaced them).

What do you mean by dowel connectors? The two dowel pins in the wing that holds it on? If so, I havn't changed those. I am not sure what that would change?

No I mean the dowel control rods that connect the servos to the elevator and rudder. They seem fairly well constructed to me and unlikely to fail but do probably weigh more than the "golden rod" variety.

Wings, how is the RF spacewalker different than you Seagull in flight? I find the RF version EXTREMELY tame and I suppose this is what gave me confidence to do the maiden. I should mention that if I were back in the US I would have had a more experienced pilot at my club "ring her out" but since I'm here in Japan and everyone else at my new club has radios set up in Mode 1, no one else could help me out.

abufletcher,
You really don't need the GP CG machine. A couple of dowel rods with erasers on the tips works fine. Drill a couple of holes at the correct spacing in a piece of 2x6 or something for the base and insert the dowels. I could be wrong but I have a feeling that you're gonna find the plane is actually nose heavy.

Ya, I think RF is a lot more tamer. My seagull isn't exactly a ball of fire, but it will snap roll and maneaver around a lot better than the one on RF.


But like you, RF pretty much convinced me to get it. I demolished my four star (frequency interference) and went straight to the LHS to get another plane. Can't live without at least one plane. I had every intention to get a Tiger II. When I got to the store I seen the spacewalker for a lot cheaper and I knew I could fly it cause I did on RF.

Jammer, it seems like my improvised "box" device should work as well as the dowel idea. It's just a strudy cardboard box with cut outs so neither the nose or tail of the fuse touch. This works on this particular model because the thickest part of the wing also happens to be the suggested CG location (i.e. the edge of the sheeting and the spar). It's definitely NOT nose heavy balanced (inverted) on either the box on on my fingertips.

Besides, I don't think being a tad nose-heavy could have caused the problems I had on the first flight. I think I'm back to thinking that it was a combination of too much throw and strange wind conditions on an unknown field. And of course my newbie thumbs!