That Dreaded ‘Dead Weight’

Model weight is an issue for me! I think that we have become so weight conscious that we are being a bit silly about it.

I think that one of the problems has been the older electric powered models were a bit border line power wise and everyone got into the habit of paring the weight down to the absolute minimum. This has been reinforced by the growth of indoor flying using super light models for slow flight.

For many years now IC powered models have been flown with wing loadings of 20 oz/sqft or more quite happily! In fact I remember an article that placed under 15 oz/sqft as a powered glider!

Recently I saw another article that stated that you absolutely had to keep the weight under 10 oz/sqft if you wanted to have a decent flying model.

Clearly, things have become very confused. Personally, I prefer a bit of wing loading. It makes the model a lot more tolerant of wind and a lot more stable in the air generally. Yes, a lightly loaded model is easier to fly in that it is less critical of flying mistakes, but once we have passed the learner stage, then a model that goes where you want it to is a lot nicer!

This rant was provoked by a statement by another flier that shows just how obsessed with the ‘badness’ of weight we have become.

The discussion was about the conversion of nicad or NiMH battery packs to LiPo. The flier was highlighting the possible problem of the weight differences of the packs moving the C of G away from optimal. Up to now this was a good point.

Then things got silly. He called to question the viability of the change, because he felt that if you could not get the balance right by moving the lighter LiPo pack around, then you could not contemplate the change. His reason? You couldn’t possibly even think about adding some ‘Dead Weight’ to get the balance right!

Whilst I have no problem with saving a bit of weight here and there if you can, (I don’t really advocate flying a brick!) I have to point out adding weight in this case is only bringing the weight back to what it was before we changed the battery pack!

In fact we may still be better off anyway, because adding a little counterbalance weight to the nose or tail will correct the mis-balance caused by removing a lot more weight closer to the C of G. But, even if we have to add the same amount that we have lost with the battery change, we are only back where we were before!

Why the fuss? Easy, the great evil of ‘Dead Weight’ sprang out of the undergrowth and scared common sense away!

Remember, unnecessary weight may well be undesirable, but weight itself is not some great evil to be avoided at all costs!

Even house bricks can fly with enough power!