The Little World

I am not a naturally suspicious person. I do not see conspiracies in every coup, assassination, or Disney movie. I regularly send money to Nigerian princesses. Yet I suspect every tricycle-geared airplane that they build…they are all tail-sitters just waiting for us to have a moment’s lapse of attention.

I regularly weigh and balance planes on their main gear to see if I can get away with as small a piece of lead as possible. I also have little faith in plastic nose gear legs.

The Mirage has a hefty tail and a sturdy set of main legs – albeit at odd angles. The nose leg is short and solidly re-enforced. So I decided to risk two slices of musket ball epoxied inside the nose. Slicing the weight up into smaller pieces allows you to position it before trial closure of the fuselage. There is enough other trouble going on at that stage – you don’t need a loose cannon ball rolling about. There are enough loose cannons at my house…