"Jay" wrote in message
om...
Regarding earlier comment...
A tight rope walker uses a 30' balance pole, not a 2' pole. The large
moment makes everything happen slower, disruption AND correction.
Think of the stability of an arrow vs. a badmitton birdy. The birdy
always points into the wind, but any little disturbance causes it to
wiggle, like your C150 with the engine 3' from the CG, when you hit
rough air, the tail bobs around.

Regarding the fus. area in front of the CG, the Rotax engine is
smaller than the Lycoming its replacing, so you could make the cowling
smaller. And we're really only talking about 2' max on the extension.

Dave,
I think we're saying the same thing, moving a lighter weight out
further from the CG will increase the moment of inertia.



You're right about the moment of intertia, but that is only one of the
forces here. Don't forget about aerodynamically destabilizing effect of
adding that surface area forward of the CG (The plug you need to add to the
forward fuselage adds, right?). Heck, Van's used to be concerned about the
impact of adding wider than stock gear leg fairings, and we're talking a
relatively small area, located near the CG...

KB