Tail Weight

[Motorman]

Plane is nose heavy. How do you add tail weight to a full fuselage and not have a blob of lead hanging off of it? Tail weight box?


Thanks,
MM

[John Rist]

If the elevator push rod is internal be careful that you don't jam it with an internal weight.  How much weight do you need to add and can you post a picture of the back end of the plane.

[Massimo Rimoldi]

If appearance is not a problem, you can use the Self Adhesive Car Wheel Tire Balancing Weights.

Regards, Massimo.

[Mark Knoepfle]

Brass tail wheel?

Mark

[Tim Wescott]

Tail weight box.  If you're building a serious "modern" stunter you have a hatch to get at the elevator horn anyway; you can use that as access to add or subtract tail weight.

[Randy Cuberly]

Tim's solution is certainly best. However, if the airplane is already built and finished, I usually just wrap solid core solder around the tail wheel strut and fly until I get the necessary weight then remove it and weigh it.  Then carefully, with a single edge razor blade, slice out a rectangular "window', on the bottom, at about 40 degree angles on the sides, then epoxy the needed weight inside and replace the rectangle into the hole and glue in carefully with Sig-Bond aliphatic glue.  The aliphatic glue doesn't affect the finish if carefully done and at worst it only needs a bit of touch up with paint!

Randy Cuberly

[Motorman]

Stick on weights should be outlawed.

[Tim Wescott]

Stick on weights should be outlawed.

We used them at FLIR systems quite successfully, on systems that flew on helicopters*.  You stick 'em on until things are balanced, mark their positions, peel off the adhesive foam, and then stick 'em back on with epoxy...

We used some sort of super-strong metal-filled epoxy -- sort of like JBWeld, only better.

* Helicopters are a high-vibration environment.  People will try to convince you that they fly because the blades are actually wings.  That's a lie.  They fly because they vibrate so hard they create an anti-gravity effect that pushes them away from the earth.

[RknRusty]

...* Helicopters are a high-vibration environment.  People will try to convince you that they fly because the blades are actually wings.  That's a lie.  They fly because they vibrate so hard they create an anti-gravity effect that pushes them away from the earth.

I rarely laugh out loud reading these threads,"LOLs" notwithstanding, but you got me on that one. Now I gotta get coffee off my shirt. And out of my nose.

[Paul Walker]

Take weight out of the nose. There are usually many opportunities to acheive this.

[Dennis Toth]

MM,
One opportunity is to install a lighter tank, lighter wheels, use a light wood prop and plastic electric style spinner. Sometimes you can add a thin strip of lead to the bottom by the tail wheel, shape it then paint over. Once you get close on the balance I have used different size tail wheels to get the final trim.

Best,    Dennis