battery hatch
 

I was wondering of anyone has a good technique to make a hatch for a battery.I need to move a battery, to help with balance, to the aft part of the fuselage.any help would be great.

RE: battery hatch
 

Remove the lower sheeting, Make a plywood hatch to fit where you removed the sheeting minus a bit to account for covering thickness. put a couple 1/4" square hardwood rails along the fuselage sides to bolt the hatch to. I would put some eyebolts or something on the hatch so you can use rubber bands to secure the battery. Some people might use velcro, but if the battery comes loose, you can kiss your plane goodbye.

Check those rubber bands at the beginning of every day at the field and if you live in a hot environment, I would check them every couple hours.

RE: battery hatch
 

thanks for the help,I was going to use velcro,now it might be rubber bands. thanks

RE: battery hatch
 

Simplier way...

if you have a flat spot on the bottom of the fuse, cut a hole, add the battery and cover the hole with a piece of Ultracote. If you ever need to get at the battery, reheat the Ultracote, and peel it off.

RE: battery hatch
 

I do not rely on rubber bands nor velcro to secure my battey packs. Plywood covers work well and i put a stiffiner of balsa inside the hatch cover as thick as is needed to press on the battery pack. I block my batteries in place with balsa in front and back of battery. You want to be able to remove the pack easily and also allow cooling air to pass over it.

RE: battery hatch
 

My Stik 30 underwent significant surgery this week and lost nearly 10 ounces as a result. The wing area is around 450 squares, so that's a significant amount. Part of that weight was SIX ounces of lead in the tail. I put in a larger battery and moved it as far aft as it would fit.

I made this hatch yesterday. Under the battery is a piece of foam that comes with Hitec receivers. The rails are not full-length because as the fuselage becomes narrower, the battery would not fit between the rails.

RE: battery hatch
 

Nice hatch! Great idea removing all that ballast. I make electric powered airplanes only and with electrics you NEVER add ballast , just shift the battery pack to balance the plane.

RE: battery hatch
 

I agree about the ballast thing. Unfortunately, this plane has a very short tail moment and when it was new I didn't want to do the surgery because the finish looked really good. Now that it's been beat up for a couple years and it's the only plane I have flying, I decided that it had to be done.

If repairs, revisions and updates = character, then this plane has tons of it.

A brief history:

It started life with a wankel. The wankel was a gas guzzler, so I switched to a webra .32. It was nose-heavy then, but the Webra's idle was too rich and it couldn't be leaned any more. So I swapped to the next bigger engine I had - an O.S. .46. That's where all the tail weight came in. The plane will accelerate going straight up, but that's all I can say for it. It was so heavy, it was a total dog. I hated flying it.

I put the wankel back on, cut off the stab and elevator and dug out all the lead shot, swapped 4 servos for lighter one (Futaba S3002's to Hitec 255's)., smaller wheels, etc. Haven't flown it yet because the winds today were really bad. Hopefully tomorrow.

RE: battery hatch
 

By the way, that photo makes it look like the plywood retainer is all the way down on the hardwood blocks. It's not. There's about a 1/16" gap between them so it can apply a little clamping pressure. The battery can't go anywhere so I didn't crank it down. Just until it was slightly snug. The screws won't back out. They're a good 3/8" in the hardwood.