ORIGINAL: JimTrainor
I can only guess...
How about: The plane operates at, or closer to, minimum drag conditions if it doesn't have to fly with loads of elevator trim. That must be worse than the cost of power wasted by pointing the engine down.
I guess it depends on how you want your airplane configured. The elevator is there to make adjustments to pitch. That's it's whole point for being. Worse than pointing the engine down? I guess it depends on personal preference... I still think it's a goofy idea.
ummm... a plane that is climbing, but not accelerating, has no "excess" lift. So we can't really say the wing's lift is in excess of that required to support the plane's weight, hence it climbs. At least not when it is a steady state.
There is almost no way to measure this in a model... mostly because a model is tough to get into a steady state. You can be climbing without L > W... true. But the climb will diminish due to drag. If you want to keep climbing L -must- be greater than W. But this is almost never going to be the case in a model because most of what happens is transient (finger twitches, gusts, etc).
When power is applied, the plane will speed up, react transiently, and the balance of forces will reestablish the plane in a climbing condition. The engine is delivering power in excess of the rate at which it is being sapped by drag, hence the plane is climbs. I feel much better now.
Speed will go up until drag=thrust.
If you apply more power and are now going faster.... L is greater than W... you're going to be accelerating upwards unless you compensate with your elevator, or reflex both ailerons, or, as some have said, use downthrust, which is kind of self-compensating.