On Tuesday, September 5, 2017 at 5:38:43 PM UTC-6, wrote:
Am considering buying a PW-5 as my first single-seater for a variety of reasons, but the one aspect I don't like is that in rough air the tail is easily pitched up in flight from unexpected gusts once I'm off tow. This one's been weighed & balanced recently and its CG is perfectly centered within its designed range.

I'm on the light side for a glider pilot, so in two-seaters I often add extra ballast when my second seat is empty. However, I see these tail-high excursions even with extra ballast in one of the Grob 103s I frequently fly solo in (but not the other Grob 103), so I am wondering whether additional forward ballast would successfully reduce the magnitude or incidence in the PW-5.

Are there any light PW-5 pilots who have resorted to additional ballast or some change to their flight habits to reduce uncommanded tail-up pitching? And if so, how effective has that change been?

Cheers,
Chris

Don't buy a PW. Buy a Libelle or Std. Cirrus of LS-1 for the same or a little bit less of cost for much more performance.

Collin