Wheel needed, or not?

[harry curzon]

I bought a second hand Tangent Nimbus 4, 6 metre span which already had been converted to electric drive but not flown.

My problem is that the motor and lipos make it nose heavy. I could fix it by removing the retracting wheel and putting the lipos there. I would reinforce the fuselage to cope with belly landing.

But, would I get away with belly landing a 6 metre, 9kg Nimbus? Has that reached the size and weight that requires a wheel?

[robc]

I belly land my 11kg 5m Ventus when I'm flying it on the slope without any problems. You might find that moving the lipos further from the motor causes electrical problems though. Jeti sell some capacitors that you may need to add.

Rob

[SP250]

Harry

Always used to tape up the UC doors up and belly land my Let ASH 26 which was 16kg all up when flying from the Mynd - but that was landing into heather and I didn't want the doors ripped off. Used the wheel for aerotow obviously.

John M

[john greenfield]

Harry

Even at 6m span the Nimbus is quite a small model in scale terms and so the wing tips are quite close to the ground. The extra height the wheel offers helps to keep the wingtips off the ground during take offs and landings and help stop the dreaded wing tip catch. With a good landing site, it would not be a problem to land on the belly without a wheel but shock loads through the airframe would fatigue it quite quickly and of course, there is a much higher risk of catching a wingtip.
Personally I would review the internal layout to keep the wheel and fit the lipo's further back. Maybe split the lipo's into 2 smaller packs and parallel them up if space is a problem.

AEB

[harry curzon]

Thanks for your input chaps, I will keep the wheel and try and minimise the amount of tail weight required to balance