Dan Heath wrote: >I believe that Jim Faughn had his 2180 forward 2" and think that he had >stock wings.
Yep, I know a little something about that plane. Stock wings, 2" spacers between engine mount and firewall. He liked to demonstrate how stable his plane was. The weight and balance sheet shows that with pilot only and full fuel, he was at 57.5", which is 2.375" aft of the forward end of the range, and 3.625" forward of the aft cg limit, and this is considering the aft limit to be 2" forward of where the plans call for. So his typical CG is on the forward side, which explains the reasonable stability, but flying straight and level required full nose-up trim from the trim tab! I've been putting a few things in the tail in an effort move the CG back a bit to cure that...things like a backup battery, ELT, APRS, and a belly board motor. I'm probably a month away from doing an updated weight and balance, but will publish it when I get there. To answer the question of Diehl wing skins affecting viable CG range...I assume the Diehl skins is where the 2S plans got the increased forward sweep of the wing (all aft spar WAFs bent to 3 degrees). That shifts the overall aerodynamic center of the wing area forward a bit and should move the CG range a bit forward also. The KR2S does this, but the published 8"-16" CG spec (aft of the leading edge of the wing) remained the same for both KR2 and KR2S, if that tells you anything. I've never bothered to check the location of the aerodynamic center for the KR2 vs KR2 with Diehl skins, but I'm pretty sure it would move forward a bit. Today I'm installing shoulder belt harness mounts. More on that later... Mark Langford ML at N56ML.com website at http://www.N56ML.com --------------------------------------------------------
