Tom

I had not meant to be either sharp eyed or sharp tongued - just interested.

What were your thoughts on balancing the tailplane? If you balance the tailplane, the backend of the model gets heavier and then you have to balance the front and then the whole model gets heavier. Since this is the area where the model and the full size have their biggest variance, you may well feel that mechanical balancing is not worth the hassle.

In my view, the model's tailplane is not aerodynamically balanced either, and the unbalanced forces will rise in proportion to the square of the speed. David Gladwin's advice about using TWO heavy duty servos to control it possibly confirms my rather theoretical view. However the proof will be more apparent when someone installs a Merlin, Jetcat Titan or suchlike and starts to explore the upper speed envelope. If you, or other owners, have the opportunity to fit a flight recorder (as per Tom Wilkinson's Eurosport in RC Jet International), I would be very interested to learn whether the elevator servo current varies with the square of the speed.