Good job my friend 👍
Good job my friend 👍
congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!
How did your CG end up? Anything you would have done different as far as weight placement? Batteries, remote radios etc?
Tough to say. Seems like no one has he issue I’m having so I would hesitat to recommend moving stuff right away unless you were planning on a 914 with. CS prop. I’m in the middle of rearranging my weigh distribution. My second alternator and everything associated is coming off the plane and the battery is going in the tail. That should put me around 10.5 solo. My AirMaster prop also adds lots on the nose and so
does my intercooler. I can get an intercooler for half the weight but $760 euro so I don’t think I’ll do that soon. My radio is so light it’s negligible but a remote transponder maybe? If it was available, CF cowls. Can’t justify it now.
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Josh Esser
Flying SS7
Rotax 914iS
AirMaster Prop
Edmonton, AB, CWL3
We are planning the edge turbo 912. With the intercooler I think its weight is about the same as the 914. We are also planning on running the airmaster unless Jason can talk us out of it. He is telling us that he has a prop that gives 200 pounds more static thrust and we will only lose 3-4 mph on the top end and we should ditch the CS. He said that you might try some of his props?
Shadowrider
Which Make and model are you refering to?
Thanks John
I didn't know you were going with the Edge(Or I forgot)! That's awesome(My engine will turn into an Edge one day).
Yep, Jason has some Luga's coming in and I am going to try them out. Jason is a pretty straight shooter and will give you honest advice but I'll give you my honest thoughts on the prop after I try it. I do LOVE my CS prop. It's super nice but it is expensive and heavy. I think that prop is 23lbs on the nose so if I go to the Luga, that will help my W&B a lot too.
The issue with the AirMaster too is my model is limited to the HP I'm making. If I want to add more HP, that prop is tapped out. To go to their bigger prop that can take 150HP, It's another 7lbs or so. So now you have 30LBS on the very front of the engine. So I think that what I may end up doing is selling the AirMaster to pay for the Luga and Edge upgrades. Might add bush gear then too. It's going to be hard to give up that prop but if I only lose a few MPH, get better weight distribution, and have better take off performance, it's probably worth it.
Knowing what I know now, I might have extended my fuselage 10" or 12". I would have fabbed up a little door right at the back before I covered so if I wanted to move the battery or have my tool kit at the very back, it was easy to get at.
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Josh Esser
Flying SS7
Rotax 914iS
AirMaster Prop
Edmonton, AB, CWL3
Excited to see your results, make sure you post what you find with the Luga prop. We are past modding the airframe since its covered, but are considering putting the battery toward the back now. We are running as much as we can in the tail, radios, transponders, ect, to try and help.
Be a little bit thoughtful about how much you decide to put in the back. Josh's case is pretty extreme on the forward CG. IMO, it's actually good for the empty CG to be slightly forward. You can ballast your cargo bay to move it back a little bit. You can replace that ballast with camping gear when you need it, but it's hard to load your plane to bring the CG forward. I've been playing with a loading spreadsheet, and it looks to me that having your empty CG within an inch (either direction) of the forward limit puts you well within limits when solo, and allows you to carry full gas, two adults, and load up the baggage compartment without going too far aft.
--Brian
Flying - S7SS
This is my concern about the home builds .I see too many variables in the adjustments and weight set up for my comfort level. Be careful my other 7 always flew straight and level with the right wing down it always needed pressure on the stick to the left. I thought it was normal and my instructor said I was doing it . So I always held pressure to the left until it came back to bite me. My plane now Is factory built and it always flys hands off so was something out of adjustment? As an amateur I wouldn't know. Builders need to be aware of this part of the build . This is my personal opinion and I wouldn't be comfortable building is all. But it is fun to work on them. I assume Josh is an experienced pilot to identify this weight problem.