i havent ordered a sledge yet, but i was woundering...are there supposed to be counterbalances. Some sledges have them and some dont. Also, is there any coupling in the KE?

steve

I have the short kit and my plans show counterbalances but the instructions do not mention them
I am going with them as they seem to work well on my OMP edge.

the older versions of the sledged didn't have counterbalance. but the newer versions do.

Went through this with Jeff 2 months ago as I was framing up mine.
If your tail section looks like this, you have the latest design.

Build it with balances like martyg shows.

As for coupling, it has almost zero. I use about a 5% mix to eliminate the roll, and I do not recall any in pitch. Any intermediate pilot that practiced it a few times could do a KE loop even without the mix. I did my first Sledge KE loop on the test flight, with no mix, at about one minute into the flight.

This plane makes confidence for you, as clearly demonstrated by the number of Monokote patches on mine.

Order it, and build it as light as you can. All Pro Bros owe themselves a ride on a Sledge.

And no, I do not work for Jeff or Morris. If it sucked, I'd say it sucked!

I have the plans in my hands and hope to get them to Morris by the first of the year so they will be sending them out with the current mods. There are only 3 changes,
1. counterbalances to the elevators
2. leading edge is now 3/4" balsa tri stock
3. build the ailerons 1/4" shorter at the root (nearest the fuselage)
The instruction manual will be revised soon. Thanks, Jeff W.

Jeff,
I received my kit in October, and I can almost swear that the counterbalances are on the elevator. (I'll doublecheck tonight). Mine cam with the 3/4 tri stock for the leading edge, but the plans and instructions don't mention it. If it wasn't for RCU, I would've been stumped on that one . Also, do you mean the ailerons are overall 1/4 inch shorter, or 1/4 inch narrower at the root. What is that for, and I can just make that mod to mine right? I've only got the horiz stab, elevators and ailerons to frame up. Just want to send some kudos for an easy to build kit, and the wood in mine was very nice, I haven't replaced any.

Joe

I angled my aileron root out just a tad. I guess the trailing edge of the aileron root is 1/4 of an inch further away from the fuselage than the leading edge of the aileron root. That cleared it for alomst 45 degrees of aileron throw.

Flynboy, I believe he's referring to making the ailerons a bit shorter span-wise and shorten them at the root (fuselage) end. I'm finishing up 2 sledges now and I see what he's talking about. My ailerons were a teeny-tiny bit too long at the fuselage end. My kits came with the tri-stock leading edge and counterbalances.

John Wells

Cool, I see what he's talking about now, thanks. And mine has the counterbalances on the plans as well, framed up the stab and elevators last night. woo hoo!