Break out the sandpaper. A few years back I bought a BOT from a clubmate. The fuse was all balsa, glassed and painted with *four-and-a-half* coats of krylon. (two coats of primer, two coats of white, one-half coat of yellow trim & speckles) The rudder was solid balsa, and was glassed & painted in the same fashion as the fuse.
It was very pretty, but weighed a ton. 3/4 of a pound of lead was needed in the nose - in addition to a big battery. All the radio gear was shifted as far forward as possible. I removed the rudder, framed up a new one of 1/8" balsa and covered it. I sanded the fuse back down to the fiberglass and repainted it with a single light coat of white. The plane now weighs a full pound less than it did before. I was even able to remove most of the lead from the nose. -==- Barrett > -----Original Message----- > From: Jim Stovall [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Sunday, February 13, 2005 5:25 PM > To: soaring@airage.com > Subject: [RCSE] Need some guidance from the gurus........... > > > Guys, here's my dilemma. I have an older 2M sailplane that I > bought used and I haven't flown for several years due to the > fact that it is overweight. I flies like a pig. This winter I > decided to delve into why it was this way and have come to > these conclusions: The rudder is a slab of balsa that has > about 3 coats of Krylon on it. The tail is balsa sheeted with > framework underneath, also with about 3 coats of Krylon on > it. To balance this heavy tail is a @$*&load of lead in the > nose. My question is this. Not being a builder, I was wanting > to just cut some circular "lightening-holes" in the rudder, > so I can get the lead out of the nose. Will this be a good > enough fix or should I start over? I really think this plane > would be a fun ship to fly if it were lighter. Please help! > > > RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send > "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to > [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and > unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with > MIME turned off. Email sent from web based email such as > Hotmail and AOL are generally NOT in text format > > RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off. Email sent from web based email such as Hotmail and AOL are generally NOT in text format
