I need some ideas about balancing my plane built out of foam poster board (see pic) . Should I keep the nose heavy? Do I balance at the main spar in the wing? I really hope this thing flies. I figured it will be a good plane to learn on and I wont be too upset when I crash it. By the way, it is VERY strong and light and only cost me $35 to build the plane.

You should be able to use the spar to balance your plane. It should be a little nose heavy. This will make it a little more stable in flight.

I made mine from probably the same stuff.

I flew mine today. I just have to add some down thrust and make it less sensative. It is a fun fly type airplane that I specially engineered for me.

If that plane balances well on the spar and has a good amount of thrust deflection if will fly.

My friend has horible looking aircraft that were crashed repeatedly. He used a twig for the leading edge of one and he said it flew great. It also had a new front end that was looked like a box. The point is that if you saw some of them you would have no doubt that your plane will fly.

On a straight wing,measure from the leading edge back 22% to 28% of the wing cord.22% being nose heavy ,28% being tail heavy.

General rule of thumb - CG = 25% - 35% of the wing chord from leading edge.

http://www.uoguelph.ca/~antoon/hobby/pmdesign.htm

<Edit> Remember though, this only applies to straight wings, with a constant chord width. Do not use this "rule" for tapered wings, swept wings, wings with washout, etc...

Thanks everyone. I will try those ideas today and I will let you know how it flies, when I get some decent weather to fly in. Snowing here today.

aircowboy,

Where do you fly?