What a difference 3oz makes

I was sent on a technical training course for work last Thursday. The training centre is in Sundridge, north of Sevenoaks in Kent. Fortunately my West Wings Aurora breaks down to fit discreetly into the car boot so I took it along for a spot of soaring over Ashdown Forest which I passed through en route.

The wind was a brisk 15+mph WSW. I threw the model up into the wind OK, but then it just went sideways and backwards and generally fell about the sky until it plunged into the heather. After a few attempts I dug into my spares box and came up with some wheel-balance weights which I fixed under the servos with a big blob of Blu Tack. The transformation was amazing; I suddenly had a well behaved model that went wherever I pointed it and could enjoy a half-hour flight off a very marginal slope. It's a curious paradox that making a model 3oz heavier actually helps it defy gravity and stay aloft...
Having had steering issues with this model before you can see from the following photo that I had moved the servos from the centre to the side of the fuselage to allow a longer swing of the rudder servo arm. The rudder now taps the elevators at the end of its travel and is reasonably effective.

Happy landings
Russell H