hey everyone, im trying to balance my .91 extra 260 but i've got a problem. i've already added 3 oz of weight to the inside of the cowl, and the center of gravity is still about 3/4" rear of where it should be with a half tank of fuel. is this close enough? i do want it a little tail heavy, but im not sure how much i should go for sport flying. any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!
eric

get rid of the fuel, it should be empty. start the cg where the mfg. suggests, and move it back slowly after you fly it to see where Your model flys best for you. it is the safe way to do it. patience....

good luck

Bingo is absolutely correct. The plane needs to be balanced with the fuel tank empty.

Ken

its been a while, but is it ok to add weight to the inside of the nosecone?

If you're referring to the spinner, it's not the best of ideas. Since it's spinning any weight needs to be done so that it's balanced. Otherwise you will get the spinner off balance at the least can cause the plane to go out of control and at the most damage the engine and the airframe.

Ken

Not to mention the fact that the badly unbalanced spinner will soon break, fly off and leave you with a very tail-heavy airplane.

Here's some "functional" weight on the nose, if you don't mind loosing the look of the spinner. [link=http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXL729&P=7]Heavy Hub[/link]

Determine proper size based on your engine. That get's the weight as far forward as possible. Maybe this helps?

-MA

ok as everyone has said balance with an empty tank...
As this is a low wing airplane are you balancing upside down? You should be...

no i balanced the plane right side up, the wing is pretty much in the center though. i just checked it again, when it is upside down it is noseheavy and when it is right side up it is tail heavy... hmmmm.... i haven't been flying in about 3 years so i'm pretty rusty as far as remembering all of the precedures for balancing. all help and replys are appreciated though!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

also the weight i have been adding is to the inside of the cowl, that shouldn't cause any issues should it?

When you need nose weight the only option is a bigger engine... at least that's what I tell my wife

Stang i tryed that a few times with my wife an it worked great. Then one day she got on towers web site an things haven't been the same since. She found that 40oz of stick on lead was alot cheaper than 40oz of bolt-on O.S. I told her they may fall off if fuel soked,so she showed me how to drill a hole in them an mount them. From that day on its been just moderate powered models