[RickyBoy]

Check out what FedEx brought me today

Seems to work great. Comes with 3 sensors to weigh with, and 3 angle sensors. Have to play around with the angle sensors to figure them out.

My Viper Jet seems just slightly Nose Heavy with batteries all the way back. It came out around 1lb nose Heavy according to the balancer the way I was flying it.

[RickyBoy]

The Angle Sensors

[j-c terrettaz]

Very cool tool

[RickyBoy]

Don't forget those Green Bottles

[j-c terrettaz]

To cover the cost you should rent this CG machine...

[smoknrv4]

Pretty slick!

[Angus]

Originally Posted by RickyBoy

Check out what FedEx brought me today

Seems to work great. Comes with 3 sensors to weigh with, and 3 angle sensors. Have to play around with the angle sensors to figure them out.

My Viper Jet seems just slightly Nose Heavy with batteries all the way back. It came out around 1lb nose Heavy according to the balancer the way I was flying it.

1lb too much in the nose seems dramatic for a smaller plane, especially if you thought you were on the cg mark before. have you flown it since? and is it possible or easy to input a measurement error with various wing types?

I have ordered one too and really looking forward to measuring all my planes

Thanks for any info

Angus

[RickyBoy]

Hi Angus

It is tricky getting the measurements. With that ViperJet I flipped her over and made all the measurements on the bottom of the Jet. I realized that my front gear is offset back from the main strut so that measurement is not quite right. They say to measure from the center of the sensors so they should have made at least 2 or 4 little marks on the sensors so you can line them up on a grid. So I need to make a jig with a grid system with a scale. Then the only trick will be getting the Center of Gravity as recommended down on the scale so you can measure the distance from your Main Gear Center line to the GC. Flip the Jet over and measure or something like a plum bob

I will figure it out

See you

[Len]

Hi Guys,
Use a laser level to project the axle position onto the fuselage and you can measure easily from there to the CG as spec'ed by the manufacturer or wherever you want it. I put a piece of tape on the fuselage bottom and mark it from the laser, for both the mains and the nose. It makes measurements a simple task. By the way the point to measure from is the supported position (ie the axle), not the strut etc.

I used to balance my big jets using 3 food scales topping out at 5kg but the planes got too heavy so I was using new 10kg scales when Gaspar told me about this gizmo. Using scales was an iterative process and math intensive...this CG Machine takes all the math out of the process.

I just got my angle sensors today!
Enjoy,
Len

[Jeremy300]

The easiest way to get the measurements is to place the nose of the jet against a wall. Place the sensors under each wheel. Measure from wall to mains sensor. Measure from wall to nose sensor. Subtract the two and you have your main to nose distance. Measure from the wall to wanted CG position. Subtract from mains and you have CG position measurement. Measure from wall to CG correction position. Subtract from mains measurement and you have CG correction weight position.