i flew the first 3 flights on my new hangar 9 value series cessna this weekend after i got it all put together.. i brought it in the first time and set it kinda hard.. the second flight was deadstick but i brought it down fast just to see if i could set it softer, not really successful maybe a little softer.. the third time was also deadstick and i have no idea why it keeps dying but fortunately it floats well so i brought it in even faster, i mean a screaming dive and it finally set nice. my question is should i add some weight to the rear to make it set down a little easier on landing? i mean the plane glides great and i can even with the engine out pull straight back on the elevator and it wont snap! i pull full elevator (with engine cut) and it stands at about a 50 deg. angle then slowly goes nose down and only drops about 10 ft. before it starts to climb again! it is a great flying plane, just doesnt want to set down smooth and soft like i like it.. tends to hit a little hard on the nose and i was landing it in tall grass since it was my first few flight i didnt want it to do something strange on pavement, and i would try to set it soft on the top of the 2.5' tall grass but it would nose down and flip tail over nose all three times no damage at all because i got the speed down and the grass would give. i want to get it on pavement, but i dont want it hitting the front tricycle gear hard so i was wondering if weighting the rear will make it set a little more on the rear wheels and less on the nose gear?

also i dont want the weighted rear to affect the in flight characteristics too much..

The plane should be balanced according to the instructions that came with the plane. You shouldn't add any weight to try and help the landing. The only thing that is going to help your landings is practice. From the sound of your description you're coming in too fast and are having to force the plane to land before it's ready to. You need to learn to slow the plane down and touch down with less airspeed. The only way to do that is proper instruction and practice.

Ken

the first flight i brought it in just like i used to bring in my hobbico, looow and sloooww. it seemed to not respond too well to the up elevator right before touchdown so i sped it up on the second flight knowing that the more airspeed it has the more response to its control surfaces it will have, that seemed to help so i brought it in even faster the 3rd time around and that seemed to help the most.. but this is not that kind of plane, i have dual rates set up and all three times were at 100% elevator so i dont understand why it doesnt set good slow.. it is a low and slow landing type of plane so why won't it do it.. i figure a little tail heavy would help it set right as the plane came with no instruction as far as balancing goes so i just set it up to balance on the main spar through the wing.. it is perfectly balanced on the spar but maybe this particular plane needs to be a little rear heavy?

There is a saying for planes "A nose heavy plane flies poorly, a tail heavy plane flies only once". Adding weight to the tail won't do much to help the landing, but could very well make the plane uncontrollable in flight. Every plane lands differently, so what worked on your other plane may or may not work with this one. As I said before, I would suspect your landing technique more than anything else. You just need to learn the proper landing procedure for this plane. And practice, lots of practice.

Ken

You still haven't answered the basic question: Is it balanced per the manufacturers instructions or just wherever you felt like it? The manufacturer may also have provided a CG range. You could gradually move the CG to the aft limit of that range. Beyond that you are experimenting and don't blame Hangar 9 for damages.

rcken, i remember that saying now that you mention it.. i will have to agree with that, i had a friend who had a spad that was a little tail heavy, we strapped a weight to the motor mount but it was still tail heavy but he flew it anyway and if it werent for his flying experience that thing would have crashed hard, it kept dipping and diving doing strange things never really in control.. he was constantly correcting anything it ever did, he attributed it to it just being a lightweight spad and the engine being too big but i knew it wasnt balanced and that was why its flight pattern was so erratic..

bruce there were no instructions included with the plane as far as balancing goes or i would love to try your recommendation for moving the cg within the range.. maybe there are specs but there were none in the package.. if anyone has these specs or knows a good place to look, please let me know. thanks for the speedy responses, i love this forum!

You really need to work first on getting the engine to run.

The instructions for balancing the plane are located on page 44 of the manual. [link]http://www.hangar-9.com/ProdInfo/Files/han1600-manual.pdf[/link]

holy smokes how did i overlook that?!!? thanks so much rcken!!! that helps a lot!

there is a special name for planes that are tail heavy enough. they are called helicopters.

"adding weight to the rear"

Just get married...


(sorry, couldn't resist)