Evan:

I read that Sopwith didn't include the pilot adjustable stab on the Camel, that it was discontinued after the Pup because the extra weight back there caused CG issues. ???

Regardless, I stayed away from a lot of positive incidence as I've been told it is possible to stall the stab. I'm hoping that as speed increases, the lift generated by the Clark Y will overcome the pitch up. Also, when I did the weight and balance calculations, I discovered that the 60 size electric power system will weigh about 4 oz more than the glow, not including the tank and fuel. It will all be right behind the fake rotary engine, without the weight of the tank/fuel behind the firewall, so the extra weight of the built up stab should be manageable. (I'll weigh the whole mess after I get it done and compare it to the factory setup.) I'm really hoping I can do away with that one pound block of lead in a box that's attached to the firewall.

As for top speed, 20 mph would just be too slow for the wind conditions here. 40 seems to be about right for the WWI birds. (When I owned a sailboat, I was always becalmed and forced to use the iron genoa. Go figure. Maybe I should by another and park it in the back yard.)

Thanks for the info on this subject. I didn't realize how badly this affected the replicas. The terrible Mustang crash in Reno was caused by the same thing- the P-51 doesn't have sufficient + stab incidence to prevent a very strong nose up force at the speeds they race them. The stress on the elevator trim tab caused it to fail, resulting in an instantaneous pitch up that caused the pilot to black out. The really sad part is that the identical failure occurred several years ago, and the our worthless Federal Aviation Admin did nothing. They should have grounded everyone of those aircraft, have the stabs torn down, and inspected for cracks in the tab area. That still hasn't happened, to my knowledge. Maybe some of the individual teams have done this, but nobody's talking about it.

Old airplanes have an endless bag of tricks that have to be guarded against- I worked on 20+ year old F-4s for 14 years, and issues were constantly popping up that the original owners never had to deal with. Not long after the Soviets shot down that KAL 747, one of the Air National Guard F-4s from New Jersey landed after a TU-95 intercept, minus an AIM 7 Sparrow, and the launcher hooks were hanging open like it had been fired. You wouldn't believe the panic in Washington that ensued until the NJ load crew pulled the cartridges out and found they had not been ignited. Turned out a part that was never a problem had developed metal fatigue, bent, and although the rack passed the "locked" check during loading, it opened up and dropped the missile in the Atlantic.