Recently a plane of mine needed 10 grams of weight on one wing to even things out, and it did make a real difference to how it flew - so do take the time to balance your plane both ways. A quick and easy method of balancing rc planes, if you don't have a special plane balancing tool, is this: Place the tips of your index or middle fingers under each wing, exactly on the line of the CG (i.e. flight battery pack in place or fuel tank empty. The standard and safe CG position for a typical wing in front, tail in back plane is 33% of the wing chord. If you toss it with the wing tilted left or right, it will turn left or right, so just try again and throw it wings level, nose level at about gliding speed or slightly faster. Correctly balancing your rc airplane is so important for safe flying, because an incorrect Centre of Gravity (CG or CoG) can potentially result in the plane being quite uncontrollable. Whatever ballast you do add, make sure it is secure to the plane and won't drop off in flight! Correct CG on rc plane makes it easy to fly and to control in the air. Already a member? Content by Pete Carpenter. A large wide nose can move it forward. Get my downloadableRC Beginner's Guide.Updated for 2020! Also, a quick CG check can be easily done at the field on fingers. Don't have an account? It is often useful to include a profile fuselage as well. RC Airplane World flight school - lesson #4 : weight and balance. If it dives and won't pull out, reduce the nose weight or add a touch more up elevator. A quick and easy method of balancing rc planes, if you don't have a special plane balancing tool, is this: Place the tips of your index or middle fingers under each wing, exactly on the line of the CG (i.e. When it comes to RC airplanes, I am of the “two sets of wings are better than one” kind of guys. Test your CG location by doing the "roll inverted" test. A correctly balancing rc airplane, sitting on your fingertips, will either be level or have the nose pointing slightly downwards. Copyright© Pete Carpenter / RCAirplaneWorld.com 2002-2020. To perform a test glide, do your pre-flight checks and, when ready, turn on the transmitter first, then the receiver. If you're looking to repair, customize, maintain, or upgrade your R/C, you'll find exactly what you need at RC Planet. Flying Wing CG Calculator. The CG point is determined during the design stage of the plane or aircraft and is typically shown on a plan as a disc split in to four quadrants, as shown to the right. How to Find COG ( center of gravity) of rc planes - YouTube Simply drill holes in the block and push the dowels into them, ensuring a tight fit. These transmitter trims are located beside the sticks and correspond to their parent con… This is especially true for multi-wing models. High wing planes are the easiest to balance and if it's your first plane then this is likely to be the case, since you should have bought a high wing trainer! More info: To learn more about wings and lift, check out this article from our Flite Test Aerodynamics Simplified series. Depends on what type of plane it is. So long as the plane can balance on two points, one under each wing, then you have a balancing tool. The balance point should be at 8.75", according to the plane plans or instructions. Locating the CG at 25% is a safe bet for a maiden flight. As a very general rule of thumb the CG will be about one-quarter to one-third of the wing chord (width) back from the leading edge of the wing. The standard and safe CG position for a typical wing in front, tail in back plane is 33% of the wing chord. Welcome to my website, RC Airplane World. Well, it mostly comes down to the horizontal tail size. It should fly the same. You can learn a lot this way. It might be helpful to imagine the CG placement to be inside a range. Again, this position is only a generalisation and in reality a CG point can be found anywhere from, say, 25% to 50% of the wing chord back from the leading edge. Technically this is called longitudinal balance. Copyright© Pete Carpenter / RCAirplaneWorld.com 2002-2020. To work out where 25% of your wing is, the MAC of a rectangular wing will always be simply the total chord. The larger the area of the horizontal stabilizer, the more forward and aft CG at which you can be safe. I didn't want to print the entire right wing without doing a test print first so I picked the smallest wing section and followed the video instruction exactly. WL Toys V686G 5.8 FPV Headless Mode 4ch RC Quadcopter Drone with 2MP Camera w/Real-time Transmission/4GB Memory Card RC Remote Control Radio 8/31/2015 $ … This makes it easy to feel the balance point. If the CG is placed outside of this, the airplane will be either too nose heavy or too tail heavy to be stable. 1/8" (3mm) foam works great for a 10" span model. You can liken a plane's Centre of Gravity to the fulcrum of a see-saw, for example. As of the most flight critical aspects of RC, you’ve just got to get the CG right. receive periodic yet meaningful email contacts from us and us alone. it is often helpful to make a small flat plate glider. You want it to pull out of a slight dive and achieve a steady down slope glide. As you may have experienced before, the CG is quite a sensitive thing. A large wide nose can move it forward. When dealing with unusual configurations, like canards, flying wings, etc. The finger-method described above is a tried and trusted way of balancing an rc plane, especially if you don't have access to a special balancer. Without proper dihedral these gliders will often be spirally unstable, which means they will go into a turn and gradually go into a spiral dive. Here’s a formula to help you calculate what the volume of your tail should be. Then glue on two thumbtacks at those points . Flying wing CG calculator. Aircraft Center of Gravity Calculator 4. Hopefully, some of this more in-depth information on the subject of the CG will set you up for success with your next RC flights. RC Plane Poster 19 … Visit FliteTest.com to shop, read, chat or watch videos about drones & RC planes. The basic principle of the CG is that it should effectively line up with the Center of Lift which is, as you might imagine, the average location of the aircraft’s lift. RC Planes, R/C Airplanes and Accessories. Balancing a radio control plane correctly about its Centre of Gravity is so important because a very badly balanced plane will, at best, be hard to control. Helps you locate your plane's Center of Gravity (CG), as well as calculates the Aerodynamic Center (AC), Mean Aerodynamic Chord (MAC), Neutral Point (NP), Wing Area, Wing loading and Stall Speed. Helps you locate your plane's Center of Gravity (CG), as well as calculates the Aerodynamic Center (AC), Mean Aerodynamic Chord (MAC), Neutral Point (NP), Wing loading, Wing Area and Stall Speed. So, then, to roll balance your plane simply hang two lots of strong string from something stable (i.e. Like with most things in the RC airplane hobby, the subject of the centre of gravity (CG) can be less complicated in models when compared to full-scale aviation. Log-In With the CG at 3-3/8" (25% of the MAC), it was still slightly pitch sensitive, but usable as a trainer. This is the envelope where the airplane is controllable. Whether you're a new hobbyist or an advanced radio control enthusiast, having a wide variety of tools is crucial to your RC fun. Get Thin sheet lead, if you can get it, is perfect because you can cut it and bend it to shape and the pieces don't have to be big to have an effect on the balance. it is often helpful to make a small flat plate glider. It takes just 10 minutes to build one of these, and is way faster than building and crashing and rebuilding a full RC plane. the specified distance back from the leading edge of the wing or nose of the plane) and a couple of inches out from the fuselage sides. Another ballast option is to buy special rc airplane ballast in the form of tiny metal balls which are fixed in place with an epoxy glue. (Learn about beginner planes.). There is no need to throw it really hard, but if you do, it will probably climb a bit. New to RC flying? Learning some of this theory can help you to balance your models better, so let’s cover some of this now. - For wings with 3 panels. Wing span: Root chord: Tip chord: Sweep: as .