cg with or without fuel
 

hey guys i was reading and whenever they say to check the cg they dont say with or without fuel. Now i was told that you must balance it without fuel in the tank. i was also told that you always want your tank in front of the wing or at least never further back then the cg point. does this make sense as the fuel tank will hold about 11oz of fuel? do you want that much wait in front of the cg?

chris

RE: cg with or without fuel
 

Without fuel, always balance a plane with an empty tank UNLESS, the rare exception of the fuel tank being aft of the center but that is rare.
Yes you want the tank in the front, I have planes with as much as 24 oz. tanks in the front.

RE: cg with or without fuel
 

Missleman is right on the money. Balance your plane with the tank empty. If you balance your plane with the tank full then when the fuel is used up the plane will become increasingly tail heavy. There is a saying that a severely nose heavy plane flies poorly, a tail severely tail heavy plane flies once. You don't want to be landing a tail heavy plane at the end of your flight, especially if you are out of fuel and making a dead stick landing. The little bit of nose heavy that you get from a full tank is no problem at all. Always balance with an empty tank

Ken

RE: cg with or without fuel
 

Some planes have the engine in the rear (pushers or planes with the engine in the tail). These planes MAY have the tank aft of the CG to reduce the fuel line length. In these few cases the tank should be full when setting the balance point.

RE: cg with or without fuel
 

All ways no matter what, balance with an empty tank. And unless your using a gas engine with a diaphragm pump like those on chainsaws, or weed wacker engines you will want your tank up front, other wise your engine wont ever get fuel.

RE: cg with or without fuel
 

WRONG!! See post 4 here.