Jim,

While that article is interesting it refers to pitch stability. I think we all know that it's possible to fly a typical pattern model with the CG well behind the optimum for our purposes but it's the directional stability or how "locked" it feels that suffers.

The reason for this I suspect is the recent trend to bulkier fuselages without a corresponding increase in vertical tail area. What is interesting is that the very latest designs such as Chip's new model seem to be addressing this. Perhaps with this particular design aspect correctly tackled it would be possible to consider a running less pitch stability.

Malcolm