I read about someone putting a little box on their SS so they could drop little parachute men for their kids to catch. Thought it was a neat idea, built the box, put it under the wing, checked the CG--it was close. Good enough, I thought.

Wrong. It was a wild ride. My normally gentile SS was a crazed bird spiraling in circles. Lucky to land unscathed.

Added 5 pennies to the nose. Not as crazed, but still bonkers to fly.

Added only 3 more pennies to the nose for a total of 8. Back to her old self. Needed a tad more power to fly because of the extra weight, but back to her predictable self.

I now can see how a newbie who didn't quite get the CG right on a plane can easily get discouraged. I now wonder if I was just lucky that I got mine correct the first time out. I know I've read about another incident here on RCU that sounded exactly like what my SS did, but couldn't figure it out and went out to buy a different plane.