A message to everyone on your initial plane checkouts, the center of gravity is important. I didn't think it was a big deal that mine was a few inches back from where it should have been. The plane took off, was a little squirlly and I didn't have much elevator control at all, so I started lining up for a landing to fix it. I entered the shallow dive for landing and never came out.
Thwack.
M@
Nose-heavy aircraft fly badly.
Tail-heavy aircraft fly once. Cheers, Fred McClellan the dash plumber at mindspring dot com
Then you find out about lateral balance!! There is a learning curve to this hobby. Unfortunately gravity is almost always a part of that curve... Andy
We can make a box of wood.....FLY!!
A few inches??? Damn! Just what size of a plane was it?
and if the CG was "a few inches back" , wouldn't the elevator be VERY sensitive instead of having no authority??
kinda sounds like something smelly living under the bridge if you ask me
Wow....a CG that is "a couple inches" off the mark is like putting a brick on the firewall or tail. For a first flight of any model the CG needs to be "right on the mark" recommended by the manufacturer
OR just a bit towards the nose!!
As it was said elsewhere on this thread:
"Nose heavy planes fly poorly, Tail heavy planes (usually) fly once!"
"couple of inches" could be the allowable range on a large model, y'know . . . Cheers, Fred McClellan the dash plumber at mindspring dot com
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