Balancing Ft Explorer

CharlieF

New member
I’m finishing up and Ft Explorer with a Turnigy 9x with a power pack c and a 3s 1800 mAh Battery as far forward as possible to balance the plane out is 2oz of nose weight considered to much weight or is this about a normal weight?
 

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RCCola

New member
May have been operator error for me, but my wings folded on my maiden flight of my explorer :( . Tried a loop, and maybe had a bit too much speed. If I build one again, I'll do more of a spar in it than what they recommended. Before that, it flew fine. After that, it was done... Although, I had used dollar tree foam instead of their prebuild kit. Looks nice!!!
 

buzzbomb

I know nothing!
That is a nice, clean looking build! I haven't built the Explorer myself, but the wing folding up is a problem I've read that many have had. You might want to looking into some sort of spar for it. A lot of people use carbon fiber arrows and cut the ends off.
 

kilroy07

Legendary member
May have been operator error for me, but my wings folded on my maiden flight of my explorer
Nope, lots of us have folded wings on the explorer!

I flew mine on a 2200 as well, so +1 on @Hai-Lee suggestions (both of them.)
Some FPV gear in the nose will help too. 😉

Might be too late for a spar, but maybe run some packing tape from one wingtip to the other on the underside to help... I think the explorer has pretty high wing loading to begin with.....
 

Hai-Lee

Old and Bold RC PILOT
Just a general statement on wing strength on the Explorer. The explorer wing spar is a piece of FB with the paper running from front to rear the same as it was done on the TIny Trainer and designs of the same time period. Unfortunately this arrangement on such a heavy model does introduce a severe weakness into the structure. On my build I made my FB spar I made it such that the paper on the spar ran between the lower and upper skins of the wing AND I glued a number of paddle pop sticks across the central wing joint, (I did away with the dihedral completely.

My Explorer lasted for about 18 months before I gifted to another club member!

Have fun!
 

tcalico

New member
Just had to add 2 oz on my Explorer running a 3s2200 with B motor, but that was after some tail boom repairs and the addition of a tail wheel. I think the first crash was because it was tail heavy though, so best to always favor the nose weight.