What is the best way to balance a plane from side to side? One wing is heaver than the other when installed on the plane. I think its from the muffler making it heavy on one side.

I make a hole in the wing tip and epoxy in a little lead. Then patch the small hole with an extra piece of covering from the part of the wing inside the fuse. The further out you get on the wing the less weight you need.

David

There are actually several things that you can do. Use the largest (physical ) battery that you can fit in the fuselage, and place it on the side that is lighter. Mount your receiver on that side too. If you normally use a 600 mah battery, you can use a sub-C pack and almost quadruple the weight of the battery, and you'd be surprised how much you can alter an out of balance problem. You get the added benefit of having around 2400 mah of battery power as well. If all else fails, you can add lead to the light wing tip, and a little does go a long way. Are you checking the balance by using the propshaft with the glow plug removed, and adding a straight pin at the tail to check the balance with?

Bill, AMA 4720
WACO Brotherhood #1

I tie a string around the prop shaft behind the spinner and another to the rudder (tailwheel or between hinges) and suspend it from the ceiling. Then I start putting pennies on or over the high-side aileron servo. When it balances I remove that servo and tape the pennies to the servo with electrical tape. If pennies aren't enough I use sheet lead.

Works great with rear-mounted rudder and elevator servos, too.

When building a model I pre-balance it before adding the covering and then the covered balance usually just requires minor additions.

Well I don’t have ailerons, my elevator and rudder servos are in the fuselage under the wing and the covering is already on. The plane looks like a GP PT-40.

My other plane looks like a PT40 also, but has 1 aileron servo under the center of the wing. So should I cut the covering and add weight in the wing? If so what kind of weight should I add?

Yes im checking the balance by using the propshaft but why should I remove the glow plug? The engine is sitting upright

I cut a hole in the wing tip but I use penny's and thick CA.

With the plane on the work bench or floor just lift the nose by the spinner or one prop blade (sticking straight up) and leave the tail wheel on the table, the plane will tilt to the heavy side.

With trike gear do the same thing with the nose but put a finger tip under the tail, lift untill the main gear is off the table and let it tilt.

Ailerons or not do not matter.

Move your Battery first, and then if you need to, you can insert a piece of solder through a small hole in the wingtip, followed by a small amount of medium CA.
You remove the glow plug, so that engine compression does not keep the plane from trying to rotate on the prop shaft. You do have to hold something in order to balance the plane.

Bill, AMA 4720
WACO Brotherhood #1

I think he was questioning what to do without ailerons as I mentioned that was an access to the wing without cutting covering. Lacking those, I'm afraid it's slice and fasten from the underside . . . unfortunately. It would be impractical to try and add enough weight inside the fuselage, though I try to offset the battery to the opposite side of the muffler where possible when the engine is installed with the muffler to one side.

Fishing sinkers make great weights as there is a hole or loop for a mechanical attachment (and epoxy or otherwise cement it, too).