Is your nose heavy?

Was your Mustunt nose heavy? The last airplane I built before going off to school and into the military was a Mustunt II. As I recall it came out a bit nose heavy with an unmuffled Fox .35. Those of y'all who have built them: is that typical? with or without muffler?

Ron B.
F4Fguy

I've been wondering lately,if my nose might be heavy.I've been having a lot of trouble holding my head up.

>Ron B.
>F4Fguy
>
>I've been wondering lately,if my nose might be heavy.I've
>been having a lot of trouble holding my head up.
>
>Ron B.

LOL!

>Ron B.
>F4Fguy
>
>I've been wondering lately,if my nose might be heavy.I've
>been having a lot of trouble holding my head up.
>
>Ron B.

Inka Dinka Doo

If you are going to build one;
My advice;
Get the article from PAMPA Very important(reprint)
Build exactly to the plans. No exceptions
Balance as shown on the plans using trim weight as needed.
Watch your weight while building and finishing 40.oz is good
I had an os 35 in mine , flew it 25 years.
Crashed when the pylon cd leadouts were sawed into by the metal bellcrank.
Hit on asphalt on the nose . bent the crank, demolished the plane,
did not break the prop. I got witnesses.
I really liked the plane.
Have built 2 Mustunt iii since disguised as Sukhois
If I build another , I will build on a ii wing.
I think the iii is too muc effort for the benefits , if any.
Hope this helps.

>If you are going to build one;
>My advice;
>Get the article from PAMPA Very important(reprint)
>Build exactly to the plans. No exceptions
>Balance as shown on the plans using trim weight as needed.
>Watch your weight while building and finishing 40.oz is good
>I had an os 35 in mine , flew it 25 years.
>Crashed when the pylon cd leadouts were sawed into by the
>metal bellcrank.
>Hit on asphalt on the nose . bent the crank, demolished the
>plane,
>did not break the prop. I got witnesses.
>I really liked the plane.
>Have built 2 Mustunt iii since disguised as Sukhois
>If I build another , I will build on a ii wing.
>I think the iii is too muc effort for the benefits , if any.
>Hope this helps.

Yeah, I follow you:)
I built a Mustunt II. The article said that a straight rectangular wing is better than a twisted tapered one. I gotta agree...

The ONLY change I am considering is fuselage monuted landing gear. I recall having a little bit of trouble bending and installing the wing mounted gear:+

>The ONLY change I am considering is fuselage monuted landing
>gear. I recall having a little bit of trouble bending and
>installing the wing mounted gear:+

I made that change, too. It may not look as purty (Isn't that the guy who won the golf tournament last week?) but is more solid and less prone to damage when flying off of grass. Of course, if you paint it like Al's in military style, then maybe you need the wing gear.

>Was your Mustunt nose heavy? The last airplane I built
>before going off to school and into the military was a
>Mustunt II. As I recall it came out a bit nose heavy with an
>unmuffled Fox .35. Those of y'all who have built them: is
>that typical? with or without muffler?

Now that is strange. This was designed for a Fox 35 without muffler. Very few people build lighter in the tail that what I would expect Al to do.

I have a Mustunt III. This has the CG in the same location, approximately, and I put in a 35 FP with muffler. It flies fine. If anything mine should be nose heavy. Are you sure that you didn't just get the controls too sensitive? Maybe you need to narrow up the handle spacing.

>If anything mine should be nose heavy. Are you sure
>that you didn't just get the controls too sensitive? Maybe
>you need to narrow up the handle spacing.

Too sensitive would make it fly as if tail heavy, if anything controls were too slow.

Instead of the tail being light maybe the nose was overbuilt.

>Too sensitive would make it fly as if tail heavy, if
>anything controls were too slow.
>
>Instead of the tail being light maybe the nose was
>overbuilt.

You're right. Too late at night when I wrote this. Mine probably came out a bit nose heavy, too, but flew well. And it was with an FP and Art style tube muffler. Need to dig it out again.

>>Was your Mustunt nose heavy? The last airplane I built
>>before going off to school and into the military was a
>>Mustunt II. As I recall it came out a bit nose heavy with an
>>unmuffled Fox .35. Those of y'all who have built them: is
>>that typical? with or without muffler?
>
>Now that is strange. This was designed for a Fox 35 without
>muffler. Very few people build lighter in the tail that
>what I would expect Al to do.
>
>I have a Mustunt III. This has the CG in the same location,
>approximately, and I put in a 35 FP with muffler. It flies
>fine. If anything mine should be nose heavy. Are you sure
>that you didn't just get the controls too sensitive? Maybe
>you need to narrow up the handle spacing.

It's been a long time... maybe it flies better in my memory than it did in reality. But as I recall it balanced close to plans specification without the muffler but I had to add tail weight when I added the muffler. I didn't take any special precautions to build extra light. I just used LHS wood and a very simple finish. As you said, I probably built the nose too heavy. I never did get very far down the road to learning the complete pattern before other things in life interrupted my model building/flying. But I didn't crash that one and I remember being absolutely amazed at the difference in how it flew compared to my un-flapped, thin wing profile trainers...

IMHO as soon as a beginner can take off, land, and fly lazy eights they should switch to a plane like this one. I spent too much time trying to get my thin wing trainers to do the maneuvers. There was too much "negative training".

>Was your Mustunt nose heavy? The last airplane I built
>before going off to school and into the military was a
>Mustunt II. As I recall it came out a bit nose heavy with an
>unmuffled Fox .35. Those of y'all who have built them: is

Interesting. I built a Mustunt II with a C-Tube wing and fuse mounted landing gear back in '75. It hung on the cellar wall of my folks house for years after I left for the military in '77. When they moved in '91 it went to the dump... Well, at least the old man saved the engine...

Details - Mine was powered by an OS Max-S 35 with an opened up Tatone Calumet muffler. It was nose heavy - probably due to the muffler. However, it only took a little weight in the tail to bring it back into balance. If I recall, it was about 3/8 ounce or so.

If I was to build a new one today, I would probably make the tail 1/2" to 1" longer, and use an FP 35 or TT/Magnum 36, or something similar.

Good luck with yours.