I balanced mine by the book and throws by the book...Never once KANNNGAaa......ROOed it so I am confidant it was more than a mere suggested starting point. I drilled a whole in the top of fuse at the C/G point and inserted a cuphook screwed into a large profiled maple block inside fuse (not glued) to aid in finding proper layout of components. Once satisfied I removed hook/block and put a sticker over hole.

A trick I used is a much lighter duty front retract/strut/wheels setup than most. Mine is Century Jets product with additional strut length of aluminum. with Kraft Hayes slimline double bogy wheels. This will help you NOT having to add a ton of rear ballast to overcome such a heavy forward placed item. On my Arf Roo from Planes plus there is no way I could put stuff in the premade locations without adding ballast... With the proper C/G on a Rooo it will sit on its tail tank empty. This equates to the front nose wheel setup only seeing 1 lb or less of weight to support fully loaded . Thus allowing more liteweight duty retract up front.