Edmonds Deltie B - balance point?

[jf_reinhard]

I'm building a Deltie B and I came to the part of the instructions that states something like, "Now this is where that mark you made earlier on the fuselage will be important" and then it continues to give instructions on how to balance the glider fuselage on a pencil by adding/removing weight from the nose cone.

The only problem is - Rob forgot to add that part about making the mark on the fuselage to the instructions.

I sent him an email at [email protected], but haven't heard back.

Does anyone know where I should make a mark on the fuselage of this glider so that I can balance it?

Thanks,
Jim

 

[kjohnson]

Can't say I've ever built a Deltie from instructions. They always showed up at club builds as laser cut balsa sheets. If I had to guess on a starting point for the CG, I'd say somewhere behind the front wings, maybe 1 chord back from the trailing edge of the wings. It always seemed to me to take more clay than you'd think.

kj

 

[jf_reinhard]

Thanks kj,

I checked last night and it seemed balanced. Today I took it out for a few flights and I was amazed at how well it flew.

For the second flight, I removed a little clay from the nose and I had to chase it for a while before it landed. Also flew my Semroc Hawk, but unfortunately on the 2nd flight, the Estes "shotgun" ejection charge broke the fuselage in two and it crashed. (seems like a common occurence according to posts on this forum). With all of the scorching on the fuselage after the first 3 flights, I guess it was bound to happen.

I think I'm definitely going to buy another Edmonds kit! Like someone else said, not the pretty things out there, but they fly very well. I'll take "flies well" over "looks pretty" any day.

Now I just need to balance my Deltie B so that I can get a nice wide circle on the way down. Either that or save up for an Arcie II.

Jim