noel.wade wrote:

P.S. My R/C gliders were so much easier - just move the battery (CG)
around until the plane was pitch-neutral with 0 tail trim! :-P

Not quite along the quantitative lines we've been following, but it is
pretty amazing to see how little the average pilot pays attention to cg
and its effect on performance in their common flight attitudes. Ask
some of the stockier pilots in your club to "trim for 55kts" (or some
similar, reasonable speed) and leave the trim there. On landing,
take a look at the elevator. I would wager at least one in two is at
or near full up deflection. Assuming this puts them at the outside
edge of the Cl ranges discussed, that's an awful lot of downforce
being produced (1/2RhoV2ClS IIRC). Aside from the "negative lift",
what's the typical induced drag that goes along with this? I'm
assuming it's pretty high given the relatively low aspect ratio,
especially of older models...

P3