Not sure why this happened but I had expected to have all of my batteries close to the back of the cockpit based on fuselage only CG. Today I got it all assembled, gear down, UAT full but otherwise dry and balanced it at approx 196mm. My balance rig was dead simple and very accurate, a stack of bricks with a 1/4" plastic dowel across the bottom of the fuselage. Gets the wheels just off the ground and you simply roll the jet over the dowel like an ancient Egyptian and hit your marks. I needed to move all the batteries forward to just behind the former at the nose gear to get a perfect CG. That is 2 2300 mAh LiFe Rx batts and the Jetcentral LiFe ECU pack. I knew something wasn't right when it wanted to sit on its tail without the DerJet cockpit tubs and canopy in place...

I am trying to decide whether to fly it first or go ahead and put the fuselage strakes, bunny ears, and stabilizer covers on first. The bunny ears won't affect the CG but the strakes and stab opening covers will. Has anyone had any issues with those stab to fuselage covers? It looks like I will have to do a bit of grinding on the stabs to avoid the covers jamming, there is not enough clearance on one side. Maybe I will just screw them on the stab root faces with the little flat head screws BVM sells. That would be a good way to be sure they are not binding before I glue them. Those big holes in the aft fuselage are not too pretty.

Boy it sure looked good sitting there on the floor!