FT Explorer nose balance mod.

by Neskair | January 19, 2016 | (11) Posted in Projects

  

 Hello! This article is to put my FT explorer nose mod out for people to see. I created the mod to make the plane balance without adding lots of weight. This uses leverage to change the CG. I hope this can solve or at least help tail-heaviness issues in a FT explorer, or inspire someone to try something new.

 I scratch-built my FT Explorer and was balancing the plane when I found a problem.

    The 2200 was all the way forward, and the plane was so tail-heavy, it looked like an invisible cinderblock was pushing the tail down!

   How my mod started:  Me being cheap, I didn't want to buy pushrods. I used thicker, heavier wire than is usually used for pushrods. This is the major part of the tail-heavyness issue. The smaller part is that I made the plane out of Elmers foam board. (Elmers is heavier than DTFB) I wanted to make it out of DTFB, but I didn't want fifty sheets of foam from FT.  Although, if I had 50 maybe I could build a FT explorer capable of carrying me......       But anyway, I started thinking of a way to balance the plane. I figured I could tape a bunch of lead on the nose, or elongate the nose, giving me more room to push the battery forward, and using leverage to counteract the tail! NOTE: Pushing the battery forward may require a longer battery lead than you have. If you attempt to do this, please make sure your battery and ESC will be connectable.

Build

I started by cutting the battery/electronics tray (part no. 2) off at the edge of the fuse. The blue line in the pic is where I cut.

 I then made a 10cm extention of the base, and 10cm extension to the back of the nose.

 I cut two balsa beams and glued them down to the electronics tray to provide a flat surface, making sure I built the tray square and true. The balsa also provides support and strength. You could use paint stirrers  or really anything light and stiff instead of balsa beams. Even better would be to add 10cm before cutting the part out of foam, and getting rid of the breaks. The flatter the better because this is where you might want to velcro your battery.

 

 

 I then glued everything together and presto. The 2200 all the way forward makes the plane a little past neutral on the nose-heavy side.

       So that is how I got my FT Explorer to balance without adding lots of wheight.  Please comment and give suggestions, and take this idea farther.

COMMENTS

rick_harriss on January 27, 2016
where you using a power pod this http://www.flitetest.com/articles/how-to-get-the-cg-right-with-heavy-foam-board can be another way of solving heavy foam board issues.

Some where there is an article that points out that the reason for the tail heavy syndrome with heavy foam is because you scale up the weight of the tail by using heavier foam board but you don't scale up the motor and control electronics - So simple I never considered why.
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Neskair on January 27, 2016
No, this plane doesn't have a powerpod. Thanks for the link. Maybe next time I will buy thinner wire. :)
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I-did-it? on January 27, 2016
Nice going, I think it's really cool!
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Neskair on January 27, 2016
Thanks!
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jimmyp39 on January 27, 2016
Well done. Nice solution. When I built mine I used a bit longer wire and moved the servos as far ahead as I could and I still need the 2200 touching the inside of the nose to get her balanced.
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Neskair on January 27, 2016
Thank you! I guess this plane kind of needs a big battery to balance. I suppose you might not need the battery as far forward if you put FPV on it.
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The-One-Who-Never-Crashes on January 28, 2016
Very nice article. Love your humor!
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Neskair on January 28, 2016
Thank you!
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winglet on February 2, 2016
When I built mine, it was tail heavy too of course. I put a little lead in the nose and it flew really great. But...I hate putting additional weight on any airplane. My solutions was to simply cut about 4 inches off of the tail boom. Slide it back together with the front all the way forward. CG is perfect without the weight. Flies just the same only better without the lead weight. I can always slide the boom back to a more aft position if I want to run a camera or a larger battery. I think this was Josh's origional idea to make the CG adjustable for experimentation.
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Neskair on February 3, 2016
Good idea!
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knoticalknots on February 3, 2016
I bought a kit and also built the first one out of DTFB. both had to tail heavy problem! The one I built I put the sport wing on and used a 1300 battery with weights to balance. It flu but low performance. the one I bought I put the 3 channel wing on and used a 4200 3cell and it fly's great! Hands off and a flight time of about 15 min. with the 4200 3cell on the sport wing it hobby horsed a lot, and was destroyed. I have now built another sport and like the move the tail forward idea and will try it out! I love the plane and thanks for the hints!
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Neskair on February 3, 2016
Very cool! Unfortunately on my maiden flight I put the battery too far forward lol. It was controllable, but even with full up elevator trim it wouldn't fly hands-off. My second flight, I was coming in to land, and realized it was going too fast so I throttled up and pulled back on the stick and ran straight into a papaya tree at full throttle! The wing took the whole hit, But the Elmers foam didn't even crease! It hit about 12 feet up, and fell to the ground. Only damage was a small dent in the nose from impact on the ground. So far I love the plane. Thank you!
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johanjonker on February 3, 2016
Mine balance just fine with a 5200mah 3S battery in the nose. or I just use 2x 2200mah for balance.. its got a big wing, so it handles the extra weight just fine.

I find it way to hard to balance 90% of the FT planes when following the plans anyway. but on this plane, I would just cut the tail shorter.
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Neskair on February 3, 2016
Cool. I guess chopping the tail might be a better idea. But what I like about extending the nose is the option to use a smaller battery, and move things around more in there.
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knoticalknots on February 3, 2016
johanjonker are you using the 3 channel wing or the sport wing? with the sport wing it it wont balance to fly level on it own but will fly. Ill let you know what happened when I shorten the tail.
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knoticalknots on February 4, 2016
OK I shorted the tail 2 inches by just pushing the tail in till the little slot for the servo wires was closed and the tail body was just feather up under the battery tray. I still used the 4200 battery and it flu better then before so maybe for the sport wing that the answer,
Dan
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Raul Montoya del Enfrente on March 19, 2016
I combined your idea with Bixler's "flip-top" cowl from the 200% cruiser.
The bottom half is glued to the fuselage joiner. It's still replaceable in event of a crash. I also changed the proportions a bit.

I hope to add a entry-level FPV system soon and will cut a hole in the very front of the nose for the camera to look through. I think it will be a nice setup.

Here are some links for photos:
http://i65.tinypic.com/j8me1e.jpg
http://i67.tinypic.com/2s198ua.jpg[/IMG]
http://i66.tinypic.com/2884kk.jpg[/IMG]

And the video of Bixler's flip-top:
https://youtu.be/ed629A8CmKU?t=9m10s
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TrooperCooper on March 19, 2018
I did this mod on mine, first at four inches, but then crashed due to unknown reasons, and rebuilt the fuse at 3, leaving the nose at 4, leaving some overlay for a possible camera. My explorer now is still in the beta testing phase, as there are some problems with excess rolling. I also added a Skywalker FPV wing onto it, and it didnĀ“t work, so I really dont know. Great mod and works well though!
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Neskair on March 19, 2018
Nice! Sounds like it has been a period of learning and development! Thanks for the kind feedback.
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Ibrahim Albalushi on April 13, 2019
very nice

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Neskair on April 13, 2019
Thank you.
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FT Explorer nose balance mod.