Guys, my great planes big stik 60 is nose heavy, I have moved everything back as far as possible. The range is from 3-3/4 to 4-1/2 my CG is at 3 inches from the leading edge I was hoping to fly it tomorrow but I have none of the ugly lead weights.

How bad nose heavy is 3/4 of an inch from the bottom of the range ? Will it fly like crap?

Teach me to put a .75 on a .60 size plane I suppose.

I'd try taping some various stuff to the tail to see what it needs to balance. Even if you don't have lead, you might get away with a few self tapping screws or a bigger tail wheel, etc. You could even toss in a second battery pack aft of the CG if you have one. Whenever I am forced to add weight, I at least like to make it functional weight if at all possible.

Another option might be to push the engine closer to the firewall if that's possible.

Maybe ditch the spinner if you are using one?

A nose heavy plane is definitely more desirable than an extremely tail heavy one but they still aren't much fun.

I would not fly my plane if it was 3/4" outside of the recommended range.

You can try moving your engine back on the mount. I just did this to my plane and it resulted in me getting to take 1/2oz lead off the tail.

Yeah, I've used lots of different things for weights before. nuts, bolts, washers, clay, bb's, are just a few things I've used as weight in a plane. Look around your house and I'm sure you can come up with something to use for weight. Do you have a Hobby Lobby (craft store) close to you?? They sell the stuff for Pinewood Derby cars there. You can get some bolt on (or stick on if you want to buy some two sided tape) weights that you could use. They should be open until 9 pm tonight (sorry, most aren't open on sunday) if you can get to one.

While nose heavy is better than tail heavy, for the maiden flights you really want to try and get it as close the recommended CG as possible. This will let you see if everything on plane is correct, and your trims are good. Then you can shift the CG to suit your tastes.

Ken

Don't forget that if your tank is near the firewall, you will be gaining a lot more weight up front and be even more nose heavy when you fuel up.

OK thanks for the help guys, I was frustrated and just could not think, I needed the step back. Here is what I have done. I added another 4.8 pack beside the first one. I am good for power in this thing. That still did not do it, I changed from the stock 3 inch spinner and went down to a dubro 2 inch. That left me just in range at 3.75. Thanks for the ideas.

I really needed to step away for a minute. I just realized I have not eaten today. OOPS

This will solve many more problems than most think it will. I have pretty much stopped long working sessions for this reason, you make mistakes when you're tired.

Ken

I had a nose heavy plane and used a wooden prop, a pitts style muffler (instead of the stock one), and I cut down the aluminum motor mount. I ended up using 1 small piece of stick on lead to balance in the end. Good luck. Daren

I've got this exact setup. I assembled mine with tricycle landing gear and came out nose heavy as well. I moved the rudder and elevator servos back near the tail and still needed 1 oz on the tail to balance. If the specs on TH engines can be believed, the TH .75 (23 oz w/ muffler) is actually slightly lighter than the TH .61 (23.8 oz w/ muffler) which is why I went with the .75.

You could loose the nose wheel also.

Bob

The CG is ALWAYS measured with an empty tank.

The CG Is ALWAYS measured with an empty tank, when the fuel tank is forward of the CG.

The CG is measured with a full tank when the fuel tank is aft of the CG.




Ken

It's not the engine. As someone else wrote, the Tower 61 and 75 weight almost the same.
The Big Stik 60 is known for being nose heavy. Mine was a tail dragger, with the battery pack as far back as we could push it, and it still needed tail weight.
Most of the other ARFs I've seen tend to be tail heavy.
Glad you got it balanced without too much hassle.

I drilled 2, 1/4 inch holes in the skid under the tail, In those holes I placed 1 inch bolts with a nut and washer on each side,so 2 bolts, 4 nuts and 4 washers. I now have the center of gravity with an empty tank perfectly at 4 inches from the LE the recommended starting point. I have already cut and covered another skid to replace this one once my lead order shows up. I ordered several weights last night. I actually have some around here somewhere but I can not find them for my life. I want the stuff inside the fuse but what I have will work fine for now.

Thanks for the help everyone.

Now if I can get the wind to lay up I will go fly this sucker.

If you check at a local fishing supply, sporting goods or Walmart, you will usually find lead weights of many different shapes and forms. There are flat round weights that come in many sizes from 1/2 ounce to up to 4 oz. These make excellent weight additions. Easy to drill a small bolt hole and using 4-40 to 6-32 nuts & bolts from the hardware departments, you can fasten them where-ever you might desire.
In the average model airplane, the ratio of weight distribution is about 1-4 tail-wise and 4-1 nose-wise depending on the moment-arms. One oz. in the tail will compensate for 4 oz. in the nose, if you have a 4 to 1 moment differential.

Actually, I would never pay the slightest attention to plans established CG ranges. In a very sub-sonic convergent airflow realm as a model airplane is, the standard 25% of mean-aerodynamic-chord (MAC) is the only item that concerns me. If I am within 20 to 28% then the machine is OK to fly CG wise. Depending on the machine's use, I may make adjustments thereafter. After flying it a bit I usually end up in the 25 to 30%. A good Pattern machine or 3D flown by an accomplished pilot can well go far aft of 30%, back as far as 45%, but I don't do either of those items so 30% is plenty aft for my flying.

So if you are flying a Big Stick - that is a derivative of the old Ugly Stick design I believe - and being a straight wing-plan, and the chord is 12" (I don't know, just an example) then a CG at 3" back from the LE would be a fine place to start.

I built my Stik with an OS 91FX, so I think I know a little bit about "nose heavy". Here's what I did. About 1700 mAh worth of battery in the back, under a "hatch", and as many 45 cal bullets as I could stuff in the hole, on both sides of the fin, before I put the battery in there and glued the hatch on. (I think maybe 6 or 7 230 grain bullets) Balanced right on the money.

I wouldn't want to fly one of these things nose heavy. They're kinda rough on the nose gear as it is.