Hello John,

I don't see much of a contradiction in what you wrote. I think your experience matches pretty well with the theory. Here's why.

Regardless of where you set the incidence angle, in level flight the wings generate only as much Lift as is needed to balance the weight of the airplane and the airfoils (and the airplane) will trim to the angle of attack to generate that amount of lift. If you set the incidence at +3 deg. vs +1 or 0 deg. the airfoils of the wings will still trim out at the same angle of attack in flight. So the Centerline of the fuselage will trim out a little more nose down with +3 deg. incidence than with +1 deg.

The horizontal tail likewise need only generate enough down force to balance the pitching moment (I'm simplifying by neglecting Lift and Drag forces acting away from the CG). If you increase the incidence angle of the wing the CL of the fuselage is more nose down and the horiz. tail can produce too much down force. In that case you would want to raise the LE of the horiz. tail just as you stated.

So I think we're in violent agreement! And I would certainly defer to your hands-on experience is setting the incidence angles.

Best regards,

Tom