Guys,
Thanks for the feedbacK. As an Aero engineer, I live on numbers and analysis! Thats why i want the weights of the stuff listed above. I appreciate that estimated weights and actual weights will change- thats why I was hoping there would be a few people willing to share component weights to do an analysis and set some typical bounds. While I havent cut or built anything for the plane just yet, its a good time to do the check calcs for all these mods. Better to highlight a potential problem now and implement a design fix rather than later when it requires major surgery! Call it 12+years of experience in the industry (design, composites, windtunnels, flight test and certification)- ALWAYS GET CETIFICATION AND WEIGH AND BALANCE SORTED EARLY IN THE PROJECT!!!
I am not moving canard positions etc at this time. I would like to lower the canard by its thickness, and maybe stretch the fuse, but then I would have to re-calculate everything. If I am going to that much effort, I may as well design from a clean sheet of paper :-) (which is a future project). So aerodynamic centres are staying put. (the vertical canard posn is till up for grabs).
I will be widening the fuse at the pilots bulkhead (2"? have read a lot on what everyone else is doing)as I'm quite broad at the shoulders, 6'1ish and in that weird weight measurement, around 210lbs. I have checked bending moments and its right onthe edge of dont worry about it and reduce manoeuvre g factor, vs add a ply and abit.
Re Mods: It is in many ways a good time to build, now that everyone else out there has pretty much done it all! Although it is also a trap- If I incorporate all the good mods in the build, how can I measure improvement?!!!!
I will post a list of proposed mods at a later date for the group to peruse and provide feedback on.
Cheers,
Rowan