Lateral Imbalance

[Jerry Rose]

I've got a lateral imbalance (Right Wing is heavier than the Left) and need ideas about how to fix it. I shifted the battery left, and that helped a lot. But then the battery is really close to falling out. I added an extra rubber band to secure the battery, but it doesn't give me warm fuzzy feelings.

It looks as if this is due to the motor hanging out the right side. On the other hand, this may be so minor that it is no big deal. So the questions are: 1) Am I the only one with a heavy Right Wing? 2) What can be done about it? and 3) Is this actually a problem, is it just a personal problem?

[Jerry Rose]

The previous picture shows the batery counterbalancing the motor in my current configuration.

This picture shows the lateral imbalance before sliding the battery off to the left. It isn't much, but it bugs me.

[Jerry Rose]

Here is the bird with the battery pushed left. The right wing is still heavy, but much improved.

[eflyer1234]

Jerry,

The imbalance is not that great. The way I used to balance mine was to make sure the bulk of the elevator servo, the receiver, and the ESC are on the oposite side as the motor.

Keep in mind that as you remove and change batteries, your balance will always change a bit.

-Jeffrey

JGRC
www.jgrc.biz

[Jerry Rose]

I could move the receiver over to the left side too. Hmmm.

[Sparr]

try mounting the battery with the cells tips facing front/back, then you can strap the whole pack onto one side of the fuse (with a small sliver of cardboard down the side of the fuse). it would not be as far left, but the entire battery would be on the left.

[thopter]

I had great success balancing my PH by putting a half penny in one of the wing spar sleeves. You can just slide it in one side where its folded over. I found the PH was very sensitive to weight at the wing tips. If half a penny is too much use a quarter penny (just break it appart with a vise or pliers);)

[BillB]

I found on my parkhawk that there are slight differences in the placement of the push rod mounting positions which causes one wing to move higher in relation to the opposing wing. This also causes a weight shift to one side. I found that if I equalized the height of the wing spars by adjusting the pushrod length the bird balanced out and flys in a straight line. Not sure if the push rods might tend to loosen and pull apart after a while. It would be better to shim between the two pushrod halves so they can be tightened.

[zick1000]

I noticed the imbalance only when gliding. Under power my Park Hawk flys relatively straight. Next time out I'll try balancing my PE by pushing a small weight, either a penny or paper clip, into the pocket at the end of the wing tip. I'll bet this cures my glide imbalance. I don't know how this will effect power, but don't think it will be significant.