Freewing Instruction Manual Suggestion: Include factory installed ballast total weight and location
To Motion RC and Freewing,
A gentleman on a different forum noticed some nose weights installed at the factory on the Freewing T-33 80mm EDF Jet during installation of his Pitot Tube telemetry sensor. There are four cylindrical weights accounting for roughly 20g each, for a total of about 80g. Two of the weights are in the plastic nose cone, and the other two weights are in the fuselage nose foam adjacent to the plastic nose cone.
With heavier and/or larger capacity LiPo's, information regarding factory installed nose weights on this aircraft (and any aircraft) would have been extremely helpful to have been noted in the aircrafts Instruction Manual. Providing the total weight and the location of the ballast would allow owners to decide upon whether it would be beneficial to keep or remove the weight depending on the components they're using in their aircraft. Freewing wouldn't be recommending anything, just simply disclosing the weights exist and where their location in the aircraft. I would have known these weights existed on the T-33.
I remember receiving a new Freewing 90mm F-15C and the stock nose cone had a lot of weight installed at the factory, but my spare nose cone did not have any whatsoever. This obviously could have caused CG issues if the owner didn't realize the weight difference or know to adjust for it.
I removed all of the weights in my 80mm T-33, and it allowed for a more advantageous LiPo position considering my LiPo weight (870g) and dimension, while at the same time improving my aircrafts thrust to weight ratio. This is a win-win. If possible, I'll always choose to remove "dead weight" from an aircraft by shifting components around to adjust for the change. The plastic EDF shroud is lighter in the T-33 compared to the metal shroud often used, but that weight was added back (and more) to the aircraft in the form of ballast in the nose.
Suggestion Summary: Please note/disclose the weight and location information of factory installed ballast to aircraft Instruction Manuals.
Thank you!
A gentleman on a different forum noticed some nose weights installed at the factory on the Freewing T-33 80mm EDF Jet during installation of his Pitot Tube telemetry sensor. There are four cylindrical weights accounting for roughly 20g each, for a total of about 80g. Two of the weights are in the plastic nose cone, and the other two weights are in the fuselage nose foam adjacent to the plastic nose cone.
With heavier and/or larger capacity LiPo's, information regarding factory installed nose weights on this aircraft (and any aircraft) would have been extremely helpful to have been noted in the aircrafts Instruction Manual. Providing the total weight and the location of the ballast would allow owners to decide upon whether it would be beneficial to keep or remove the weight depending on the components they're using in their aircraft. Freewing wouldn't be recommending anything, just simply disclosing the weights exist and where their location in the aircraft. I would have known these weights existed on the T-33.
I remember receiving a new Freewing 90mm F-15C and the stock nose cone had a lot of weight installed at the factory, but my spare nose cone did not have any whatsoever. This obviously could have caused CG issues if the owner didn't realize the weight difference or know to adjust for it.
I removed all of the weights in my 80mm T-33, and it allowed for a more advantageous LiPo position considering my LiPo weight (870g) and dimension, while at the same time improving my aircrafts thrust to weight ratio. This is a win-win. If possible, I'll always choose to remove "dead weight" from an aircraft by shifting components around to adjust for the change. The plastic EDF shroud is lighter in the T-33 compared to the metal shroud often used, but that weight was added back (and more) to the aircraft in the form of ballast in the nose.
Suggestion Summary: Please note/disclose the weight and location information of factory installed ballast to aircraft Instruction Manuals.
Thank you!
. It is Oxotnik who posted the weight discovery, and I didn't realize he was a HS member. He unfortunately only provided his discovery on the other forum, but not HS. It's great to see him on here! Crxpat also contributed by showing some great pictures of the weights after he started digging his out of the aircraft. Right when many of us saw Oxotnik post his findings, we started digging out the nose weight, ha-ha. Losing 3oz of dead weight in the aircraft in only a few minutes was the fastest weight loss I've ever experienced. 
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