first flight:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ilq7kbyswy1smt4/MVI_1832.MOV

We had some stability issues. The plane behaved as though it has tail heavy although before flight we picked it up be the 1/4 cord and it seemed fine. The plane kept going up and up until the propeller was pointed straight up and could not hold the 5lb plane, even full down elevator could not get the plane stabilized. With the c.g. being in place we are having trouble locating the problem for the plane behaving as though it was tail heavy.

One of the problems are the control surfaces, which are too small when compared to other rc aircraft so we will need to rerun the calculations on those (this should not be the problem of the plane being tail heavy but should help with the stability afterwards). The fuselage is a little thick and ends right before the tail begins so I am thinking there could be a little turbulence causing low pressure right under the stabilizer/elevator making the tail produce a moment downward.

For the second test flight (hopefully this weekend), we will have a slightly bigger tail with much bigger control surface and a more aggressive taper for the trailing edge of the fuselage. Hopefully the stability can be fixed and we can continue with testing.