Witterings

I've just finished building a new plane and had it's maiden today, the plane needed no elevator adjustment for straight and level flight from the start. I did the inverted test for CoG and it was totally hands off and then did the dive test and it tucked under in a reasonably aggressive way inferring CoG was too far back. I moved the battery forward for the 2nd flight and needed some up elevator for upright level flight inferring CoG may be a tad too far forward, the dive test it stayed at the angle of decent without pulling out or tucking under and inverted flight now required some down. Just interested to see how others "finalise" they're CoG .... I'll keep flying mine for a while as time will tell me which I prefer, most likely somewhere in between the two, I'm guessing though the plane will still tuck under of the dive test but if I like how it actually flies I guess that doesn't matter?

Cheers for both of the replies ^^^^^ makes total sense as well.

If I'm putting together a foamy with a flat fuse, the leading edge should be in the middle of the fuse .... when I'm then trimming / setting up ailerons, where should the ailerons be set at the rear, in line with the top of the fuse or in the middle between top / bottom?? the planes a Twisted Hobbies / RC Factory 43" Crack Yak XL. Not just asking for this one plane, is there a default where all planes should be set ... with most of mine I've generally tried to take a flat edge acros the top of the wing and line them up, again is that correct? ,,,, This can obviously be hard as the leading edge is rounded so I've normally gone to where the wing flattens out to take a continuous line. Any help much appreciated.

When you say correct orientation?? I'm guessing the one horizontal plug will go to the power supply and the other plugs to the chargers ... in an ideal worl they'd all be horizontal but if I can't find that this would be a quick and easy alternative.

I think I may have found what will do https://www.fruugo.co.uk/200a-power-distribution-board-with-xt60-connectors/p-362688179-787536403?language=en&ac=croud&utm_source=organic_shopping&utm_medium=organic

Like those ... the one in the pic in post 2 would be perfect, especially with the switched supplies.

Kind of typing as I think out loud here .... I could probably just use a parallel board with XT60's plugged into it.

What is backfeed / backflow ..... I think from the name itself I get what it is but why would it happen, would a charger either be putting a drain on the power supply or not, I wouldn't have thought it'd be sending current back the other way but my limited knowledge I could be 100% wrong about that? IF is does send current back the other way, is a power supply designed to cope with it as I'm guessing what you're suggesting is the current would then be sent to the other chargers and does that actually create a problem? And yes it is, I've parallel charged mainly before but would now prefer to charge batteries individually and have collected a few chargers over the years so was going to use 1 for each battery but didn't really want a collection of power supplies, each using a mains socket as well.

It's not a high draw the maximum would be less than 11amp and the majority of the time quite a bit less than that. The panel mount XT60's and project boxes looks like they could be a good combination!

Has anyone any ideas on how to easily split a power supply with a single output into 4 outputs, preferably using off the shelf products that coul easily be adapted. I'm thinking about using a small block of wood with 8 holes drilled in 2 rows of 4, one above the other to take the female bullet connectots with say all the positives along the top and the negatives along the bottom. Poke them out through the rear a little and solder each to a metal plate that runs along the back and when it cools put some glue along the back of the box for the plate to attach to and a bit of glue on each of the bullets, slide the bullets back into place and allow to set. I could then either put electrical tape over the rear to avoid contact with anything or just make a small ply plate to glue over it, if I did this i could also extend it beyond the block along with the plate to provide a covered area to solder the wire that will go to the power supply to. If anybody has ideas of any quicker / easier ways to do it, maybe using existing electrical connectors I'm not aware exist, it I'd be interested in hearing them.

Cheers for the replies .... I flew a foamy this morning that had been repaired a while ago, I think it suffered hanger rash and started a big tear either sides of the fuse along the wings and it kept dropping to one side so I guess the repair was heavier one side than the other. I came home and did what I'd done before and was shocked at how far out it was. I googled it as well and someone suggests using a piece of 4 x 4 with a nail in and place the rear on that. To re-balance it, I'm thinking about taping some nails to the end of the wing on the light side until I get the right amount and then drilling holes smaller that the nail on the end of the wing and maybe a tiny drop of CA in the hole to keep it in place ... unless anyone has any better ideas?

How do you get an accurate test of lateral balance on the bench? Until now I've just put a very thin piece of line around the prop shaft and used a finger underneath the rear of seh fuse, just ahead of the rudder but I'm sure there must be better ways of being more accurate .... mainly towards the rear.

Brilliant and cheers for that .... I've an undercarriage from an Acromaster that's like that and I'm sure I could adapt and use .... I flew the Acro without UC at the same field which doesn't get cut in the winter so belly land it instead but couldn't do that with this plane as the material's too soft. They cut it regularly in the summer holidays so once repaired will hold off flying this plane there until then.

It's a 48" Skywing Edge hybrid, comes in at 1111g without battery which is another 209g As you say it is a bit fragile, it's the 1st time I've broken a landing gear ever but that may be down to grass length as much as anything and it landing faster than my other models. There are quite a few comments in a forum about this plane saying the gear is weak from other owners. What is a torque rod type gear??

Most of the time it's not, I flew another plane this morning that was absolutely fine using a velcro strap but I have a couple where it's really awkward to get to, I tried a longer one and it was too long to get back to the part it sticks to and you couldn't the reach under the battery tray .... the perfect size one may be OK though. I did however try a re-usable zip tie and it works a treat so happy days 😃