I've been flying the Avistar Select quite a bit with the cg at 3-5/8 and it flies beautifully. It's very smooth and stable and does nice clean rolls and loops. It also flies inverted very easily with just a little down elevator. But it takes 1-1/2 oz. of lead in the tail to get the cg at 3-5/8. If I balance it at 3-1/4 or 3-1/2, it takes a good amount of up elevator to keep it flying level. I will probably try moving the battery farther back to get rid of the dead weight in the tail. I just wonder why this is necessary.

I emailed Hobbico asking which cg spec is correct, 2-1/2 to 3-1/2, or 3-5/8 and they recommended going with the manual's spec of 2-1/2 to 3-1/2. When I replied that it's way too nose-heavy in that range and that it has to be at 3-5/8 to fly level with no elevator compensation, they said, well then go with that if it works there. When I asked them why it's necessary to have to add so much weight to an "RTF" airplane, they stopped replying to me.

I also took some people's advice and bent the rear landing gear wires down to raise the tail. This did seem to help some with takeoffs plus it looks pretty cool with the tail sitting up a little higher. I may try to pursue this a little further with a smaller nosewheel or larger rear wheels. I've also discovered that the plane will takeoff pretty short if I just give it some up elevator after it gets a little speed built up, unlike what I'm used to with my little tail-dragger electric Crazy Max that will take right off on its own as soon as it gets to flying speed without any elevator input required. The Avistar is my first trike gear plane so I'm not quite sure what to expect.