Hi guys!

I have started with my Banshee project (builds a little betweed diaper changes and trying to calm angry kids). I havent actuall glued anything yet as I would like your opinions on the following:

Do I need to have the hardwood engine mounts? Or can I fill those areas with balsa wood and use the fuselage doublers that are included in the kit and then cut out for the motor. The motor is a Turnigy 35-48B 800kv and it will be front mounted.

Andreas

Thanks Dennis!   The rails are going in the trash can. For the motor mount I will glue a piece of 1/8" ply to the front of the airframe and then glue in triangular shaped supports. I saw a thread where someone did a similiar motor mount on a Primary Force.

Andreas

Andreas, Don't throw the motor mounts away what kind of model pack rat are you 

Good question Leester!

* Electric motors are typically lighter than their IC conterparts, so less weight is forward.

* Batteires are much heavier than fuel tanks, but because the are mounted aft the moment arm is much shorter - impact on CG is less.  A potential advanatge is that most folks are moving the battery fore/aft to fine tune CG.  BOb Hunt reports that he even mobed a battery to correct a vertical CG concern. 

* Now you have to chew on this one a little.  Electric CG's tend to be slightly forward of their IC counterparts, however they are really the SAME place!  How so?  When we balance an IC bird we usually do it with a empty fuel tank.  Fill the tank, the CG moves forward a little.  We do not measure that, except we notice how it flies.  With electric the fuel tank is already full, so when we measure the CG tit has to be slightly ahead of the "Dry IC" CG, in order for the in-flight CG to be where we really want it. 

Bottom line is that of all of my electric conversions to date from 1/2A size to Strega, I have have only had to use ballast  once.  The Sheeks Swinger (Classic) swept wing - I could not move the battery far enough aft to hit the required CG, ended up with a slug of lead in the tail... 

I think Andreas' chances of hitting the correct CG are pretty good, and I HOPE he can take advantage of that long nose (stock) to provide some room to move the battery fore/aft for fine-tuning the CG.