I have a four star 60 ARF that I put together and am now at the balancing stage. With the battery right behiend the fuel tank and the receiver directly behiend that it is going to take approx. 6 3/4 oz of weight by the engine or 5 1/4 oz at the spinner. I am pretty new at this still but that seems like a lot of weight to me. Has anyone else ran into this or have some suggestions? Should I just put the weight on and go with it?

Thanks for the help!
Matt

My kit built 4*60 took 10.5 oz of lead in the nose to balance it. The plane weighs 9 lbs dry.

It flies great.

Responses here on RCU seem to indicate that 4*60s are tail heavy.

The guy I talked too at SIG about this said its OK; "got big wings" he said.

Just do what you have to to balance it & go fly!

Dave

I placed my battery in a sandwich bag and placed it under the fuel tank with an os 91 fs for power. Balanced with no extra weights.

Remember to balance the 4 star upside down.

Put the battery under the fuel tank if there is room. Wrap in plastic first and add padding if room. Thin pad is better than NO pad.

WOw! that is tail heavy!![X(]

Unbolt the engine from the mount and move it out until it balances.
If it takes 1/4 or 3/8 of an inch to do it, you can go to the hardware store and buy some ply to mount on the firewall to move the engine out. On planes without a cowl, this is about the easiest way to do it.

i had the same problem with a super stick and had to move the engine out quite a ways,it looks kinda weird but solved the problem.if i hadn't have moved it it would have taken over 10 oz of weight to balance.i sat the engine on the mounting rails and adjusted it back and forth until it balanced,you can try heavy'er wheels and prop washer if you don't want to go the way of moving the engine.I'm not big on adding weight to a model if i can avoid it.

Thanks for the info everyone!!! I went ahead and put the battery in a plastic bag and moved it all the way up front under the fuel tank as suggested and it took three oz. of weight beside the engine. If it doesn't fly very well then I will shim the motor mount out a little and take the weight back off.

Matt

Well, you've saved half the added weight already and that's a good start. Just remember that a tail heavy plane flies very poorly. I'd much rather be nose heavy, given my druthers.

Here's a tip for you, "A nose heavy plane flies poorly, a tail heavy plane flies once."
If the plane is nose heavy it will not fly really well and will tend to not want to slow down for landing. Once the power is pulled back the airplane will tend to drop like a stone.
If the plane is tail heavy it can become uncontrollable. It will tend to snap out and will most often cause you to crash on landing, especially if you are inexperienced.
Balance the airplane as recommended by the manufacturer. Remember that, although you balance the airplane with the tank empty once you add fuel it will be nose heavy. I personally don't stay in the air until I am out of fuel so my airplanes are always a little nose heavy. How nose heavy depends on how long I have flown. Some of my planes have the tank mounted on the CG but I still balance on the recommended CG.

Regards,
doubledee

I am in the process of building a 4*60and I saw that the rear section of the plane seemed to be way overdesigned as far as stucture is concerned so I proceeded to lighten it up by cutting out a lot of wood that in my opinion was not nessesary. I cut away some of the wood from the framwork of the stab and fin. and covered it with 1/32 instead of 1/16. also I cut away some of the liteply that made up the rear of the fuse. It is not completed yet so I don't know yet how much good all this will do but I hope this will eliminate having to use too much lead in the nose. I am an experinced builder so I'm not going at this blind but knowing that too much material in the tail section will cause it to be nose heavy believe this will help while leaving enough stucture to keep adequate strength.

With the kit, I think you're on the right path. The Four Star has a long tail, so a small savings back there equals a lot more up front.

With the ARF, it is what it is. We can move the engine and radio gear some; then we just have to add weight if necessary. I exchanged the open foam wheels for rubberized ones, and have an aluminum spinner I can use. If that's not enough I'll bolt on some lead.

carrellh , You could also stuff the lead under the fuel tank in the fuselage and pack foam around it to keep it from shifting. I use left over car tire balance weights that Igot for free from a local garage. Easier than trying to glue the weights. Does anyone know if the Venture 60 is tail heavy as well?? I ams guessing that it is.....[8D]

I have a 4*60 and I fly the dog mess out of it. Hovers.. Torque rolls.. If I can!! Knife Edge.... Anyways.. I have it 1.5" heavy.. TO THE TAIL!! It flys WAY better when tail heavy.. Just move it back till you like it.. It is a world different plane!!

LATER

FORGOT TO SAY!!

Don't use the push rods.. It is way more responsive to put the servos in the tail. Just cut holes and brace them with thin ply and put some HS225 Hitec servos in there!! Way better!!