At the last club meeting I volunteered to publish some EZ Glider building tips, control throw measurements and general flying tips.
One secret to flying sailplanes is to get the maximum height on the launch. The stock tow-hook location will NEVER give you a maximum launch height. Move the tow-hook! Anything else you do to your EZG is just icing on the cake – the rearward tow-hook is the cake. Regardless if you have the ‘kit’ or the built-up version with servos installed, move the tow-hook rearward about ¾ to 1 inch. Simply glue a piece of ¼” ply, hardwood or what ever behind the stock tow-hook location. A common “L” hook (cup hook) bent into a threaded tow-hook is all that is needed. The new hook location should be near or just in front of the CG. Do this one modification and your EZG will be a new plane! Check out Tod Anderson’s or Allen Gottlieb’s tow-hook setup.
To build the ‘kit’ version I recommend that you use GOOP or WELDERS glue not CA to build the kit (thanks to Rick Stone and Ed Jennings). Using Medium or Thick CA and ‘kicker’, as recommended in the instructions works but you must work fast before it ‘kicks’. Why bother. Use GOOP or WELDERS (Lowe’s or Home Depot), position the parts then let the glue cure.
The foam hinges work well but you MUST loosen the hinges first. Most of us now have cut short slits in the hinges, the size of an X-ACTO blade about every 1 ½ or 2 inches between slits. Also do not tighten the lock nuts too tight on the rudder and elevator horns. Just snug them then put a drop of CA on the nut. Too tight and the push rod swivels can not rotate which causes the stab and the fin to twist when moving the servos. Stiff hinges and tight swivels cause high loads on the ‘little’ servos which will shorten the servo life.
The recommended CG location is about 99% perfect. Carefully adjust the CG to 2 ¾ “ behind the Leading Edge of the wing. Mark the CG with a felt tip pen. I also balanced my EZG side-to-side by setting the tail skid on the bench and putting a ‘T’-Pin in the nose and using my finger to hold the ‘T’-Pin. The ‘heavy’ wing will always fall. Counter with a penny or two in the light wing. I needed two pennies GOOP’ed in the round depression near the aileron end to balance the wings.
Here are my recommended control throws for the rudder, ailerons and elevator. Mine are considerably less than the recommended travels in the instructions. These are a good starting point. Your flying style may require more or less movement.
Ailerons: ¼” up and 1/8” down, Elevator: 3/8 “up and down (9/16” down if you fly inverted). FYI – Ed Jennings’s ailerons movements are huge as Ed likes to axle roll his EZG. Rudder: 3/8” left and right. If you couple the rudder to the ailerons then cut down the coupled rudder throws to ¼” or even 3/16” left and right. I am now finding that I can make much smoother thermal turns with the rudder uncoupled (ailerons only). I do couple them for launch and landings. The spoileron setup is OK but generally not needed for landings. However if you can program your TX for spoilerons do so and play with them. Remember to program a little bit of down elevator (1/16” to 1/8” down) when activating the spoilerons.
Some of us have moved the aileron horns to the top of the wings to protect the servos from gear damage. Please see me about this as it is much simpler to take a look at mine then it is for me to write up the description.