Wing question
 

HI all, I'm about 95% completed on my wing for a Balsa USA Stick 40 + with wingtip
Ailerons, I got the 2 Aileron servos in, and extensions, all looks fine there, And I'm about to start covering, everything on wing looks good, and equal, and is built nice, cept for fact wing is heavy on one side, I'm trying to remove some weight from heavy wing side,. by hollowing out
the somewhat thick solid balsa wingtip, so far so good, however I can only remove so much
I guess, I may have to add weight to other side, ( don't need all that much really, but I want it
perfect!!), Is it common for wings to be out of balance like this in the bones ? and what kind of weights and how do ya attach them, I was thinking of epoxying lead to outermost rib? befere covering of course lol, As for fusalage , its 100% done and excellent, and ready to go

RE: Wing question
 

tonyL1,

It is not uncommon to have one wing tip heavier than the other.

I would recommend that you wait until the plane is finished before you balance the wing. You want to put the wing on the fuse with all the gear and engine mounted, then laterally balance by removing weight from the heavy side (as you have been doing), or add weight to the light side as a last resort.

This takes into account all parts of the plane as it is set up for flight.

RE: Wing question
 

Yep to what ED said.
Wait till it's completely finished. And I mean completely ready to fly finished. Your gonna hang a motor with an exhaust on it. Probably your throttle servo will be to one side of your fuse etc. All of which will affect lateral balancing.
When it's ready to go just lay some lead fishing sinkers on the light side till its right, then just drill out the tip to fit the sinkers (right through covering and all) epoxy in the lead and put a dab of paint over them and no one will ever notice.

RE: Wing question
 

I do the sames as Aimmaintenance,then recover the end I put the weight in;)

RE: Wing question
 

Yes, you must finisg all the plane, covering, servos, rx, etc, dont worry to much about balancing now, and i dont think lateral balancing is to much important, if the differnce of weigh is minimum, just let it go, ailerons will put it fly straigh

RE: Wing question
 

Well, this is in the beginner's forum, and for beginners, a slightly out-of-balance (Laterally) plane will not really be noticable.... BUT it does affect flying performance.

My advice fo an out of balance wing ... just put the plane together, get it flyable, and then go fly. Read up on how to flight trim a plane, especially getting the CG right, and the lateral balance.

A problem with model aiplanes is that the engine is normally set with an amount of right-thrust. Further, the plane pivots around the center of gravity, and this is not tecessarily in the middle of the fuselage. Balancing the plane laterally on the ground is not very useful.

So, read up on how a laterally unbalanced plane can be identified by uneven loops, and so on. An unbalanced plane may appear to be corrected by using aileron trim, but the reality is that the plane is now going to fly badly when inverted, and it will not track perfectly straight through loops.

So, lateral balance IS important, BUT, there is no accurate way to correct it without actually flying the plane.

gus

RE: Wing question
 

I balance the plane after it is finished all except the top covering on the wing. I laterally balance it by puttin lead in a pocket I build into the wing with balsa. After balancing I then cover the top of the wing. Then balance it fore and aft. Setting the CG. I hope this helps.

Mark Shuman

RE: Wing question
 

I agree with laterally balancing when the completed plane is assembled, but it won't hurt to do it before it's covered. Just get all components set where they belong, servos, battery pack, engine w/muffler, then laterally balance. The covering will not affect it much, assuming you use the same amount on each side of course. ;)

Getting CG should be donw after everything is done and covered though.
Dennis-