How does one go about balancing laterally taking into account torque. Had crash from unbalanced tip to tip. Didn't think about that until crash happened. Any advice????
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I've never balanced a plane along the roll axis, only along the pitch axis (aka: CG). If you are talking about torque from the motor/prop, having a plane perfectly balanced along the roll axis won't counter motor torque. Motor/prop torque is most evident when the rpm is changing quickly and especially during those times when the plane has not reached an adequate airspeed for the wings to "fly". What you likely encountered is torque rolling a plane when taking off or when trying to power out of a stall (most likely when banking). A completely "balanced" plane won't prevent those things from happening.
Typically, a tail dragger is more likely to torque roll on take off because it hasn't reached an adequate airspeed and the plane tries to lift off too soon due to its angle of attack (sitting on its tail). It has enough speed to just lift off but not enough speed for the wings to counteract the natural motor torque that rolls it left (tractor type propulsion).
But OK, so you want to perfectly balance your plane on the roll axis anyway. You must hold it along the longitudinal line so that it can teeter on its own to its natural resting place. That line is the line formed by the prop nose cone (unless you have a top mounted pusher, in which case, you need to imagine where the normal point of the nose is) all way through the plane's body to the tail. It may teeter right side up or upside down depending on the location of the wings (and mass). When it comes to rest, are the wings level? If not, you can apply weight on the high wing. This weight should not affect the airstream going over the wing. Add enough weight so that the wings level out no matter where you start holding the plane. Again, I've never done it on any of my planes (composite, balsa or foam). Most of these model planes won't have enough imbalance (laterally as you call it) to adversely affect the flight characteristics. If a model is going to torque roll, it's going to torque roll regardless of any small lateral imbalance. -
XViper is correct. Few models will have any noticeable changes is flight characteristics by lateral balancing. Now, tissue and stick, and most rubber powered airplanes it is a must. I have a 3 channel plane that I balanced the wing because it had been discovered it was “oddly repaired” with dissimilar materials and at 60” span, and after balancing the wing with nearly 2 oz. at the tip...it was necessary, since the plane had no ailerons and only rudder for turns.Comment
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