Big Pitts/Little Pitts

[Grossman56]

Think that's what I'll end up doing Doc, yet another coat of Varathane, poor plane is getting heavy.

Grossman56

[doctormike]

I've never weighed a plane before paint, pinstriping, and clearcoat. Next one, I'm going to do that. It might all be heavyer than you would think. Doc

[Grossman56]

Interesting you say that Doc. In every video regarding the Pitts that I've watched, the fellow says to put a 4000 6S all the way forward, even to the point of cutting a small piece of foam in order to get it to the firewall. Mine is the opposite, I actually use the two stock straps and the CG is better. Remember the bounce issue I was having on landings? It was because she was very nose heavy. I pulled the weight out of the nose and moved the battery back and now she flies great, more to the point, she lands great. We determined that the CG was 3/4 inches forward from the rear of the top wing.

So, the decals do make a difference in my case since all the Blue is decal material, plus the coats of Minwax/Varathane will add weight, in this case, since the cg is so far forward, most of it would work on pushing the tail down.

Grossman56

[wvrailfan]

Cool Pitts you have there. Really nice modeling from a prototype!

Jim

[Grossman56]

Thanks Jim, she's quite the plane and a lot of fun as well. I'm hoping to fly her this weekend if the weather doesn't go too sour. Right now we're having a little rain fit here in Cody.

Grossman56

[doctormike]

Come to think of it, my C-47, after two coats of silver, Callie graphics and two coats of Varathane, is quite tail heavy. It needs a 3000MAH instead of the recommended 2200 MAH to balance. Boy, I love your paint scheme. Doc

[Grossman56]

You should have seen the look on Dave's face when he first saw it, it was priceless. When I told him that the wing decal is one looooong decal, we was really impressed. I've still got to get mixing and come up with a blue/black combination to match the decal color. Ace Hardware's scanner says its black!
But yeah, its something I/we didn't consider when I/we were painting and placing decals on. Never really occurred to me (duh) until my experience with Flite Metal that the fulcrum effect of that extra weight way out past the CG would make a big difference, and it does.
Anyway, she's a much improved bird, with new landing gear and Dave Brown tires, coupled with a proper CG. To her credit though, even with her being very nose heavy, she flew very well, it was just those extremely bouncy landings...

BTW, I've mentioned it before, but its worth mentioning again, the CG is 3/4" forward of the trailing edge of the top wing.

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

Confirmed, I had Little Pitts in the air this morning and with the rear most battery strap just catching the battery, she flew great!!

This is such a nice plane to fly, I use mid rates for T/O and landings and when I really want to do aerobatics, the high rates are fun. Nice not to have to worry about retracts and flaps. With a 4000 in her she gets a good 6 minutes of flight time. For a heavy bird, she doesn't give up the air easily, so best to drop all the altitude you can before swinging onto final. A lot of fun!!

Grossman56