Aileron Ballance Weight

[Steve W]

Anyone have a ball park number for the anticipated weight for the balance tube for a Patrol aileron covered and painted? I see 5 lbs for the Bearhawk.

[Barry]

In Bob's book that comes with the plans, it explains how to balance the ailerons. It says also that you will need 5 lbs of lead shot to balance them. I am at the stage to do this soon, so I will try to post when I figure it out. Good luck!

[Steve W]

Just an update on what I did for the weight tube: I couldn't get 5 lbs of shot into the tube so I made a mould out of an 8" piece of 3/4 X .058 steel tube. I split the tube and after cleaning the edges, I hose clamped the two pieces together and pushed it into a 3/4" hole in a block of wood with a penny at the bottom. I melted the lead shot on a coleman stove and made 10 lead plugs. I brought up the weight of each balance tube to 4 lbs 10 oz and had 8-9" of space left in the filler end. This should be enough room to properly balance the covered aileron with lead shot and resin.