Balancing a Sky 120

[RichardVaughanDavies]

My Sky 120 is finished and has had her maiden flight. Geoff, who took the maiden, said she flew very well and he was impressed. I was chuffed to bits

So, his comments were:-
Bit more throw on the elevators ... an extra 5mm added
Bit more throw on the rudder ... ditto
Felt a bit nose heavy ... This is true, when I checked the balance, she was slightly nose heavy, but only slightly. Back in the workshop, and with the help of my beautiful assistant, 70g of lead on the tail made her DOBA (Dead On Balls Accurate ..... name the movie )

My question is (finally I hear you sigh), do I fit 70g to the back end of the fuselage where it will stick out like a sore thumb, of fit 300g inside the main mid-section of the plane? Dry weight of the plane is 8.6Kgs, so would that extra 300g make a lot of difference?

Your thoughts would be appreciated.

Richard

[Dave Collis 2296]

Is it possible to move some of the internals, (battery etc.) rearward instead of adding weight?
If you have to add weight to the rear, could you put it under the tailwheel mount? Not quite so visible?

Cheers,
Dave.

[RichardVaughanDavies]

The battery is towards the rear, under the hatch thingy on the right hand side in the picture. It was here I was thinking of putting the weight.

[John Greenfield]

Get some sheet lead and bolt it under the tail wheel mount using the tail wheel fixing bolts / screws to hold it in place. It does not matter what the size of the model, it is a fact that lighter models fly better.

John

[RichardVaughanDavies]

Thanks for the input guys, and I'll go with the weight bolted onto the tail wheel assy.
I've being doing a bit of testing and it doesn't look out of place.

Thanks again

Richard