Originally posted by BlueMax3
Harry: In my plane the fuel tank is forward against the firewall and I balance with an empty tank. So during flight, my plane is certainly nose heavy. Based on your comments, if I trim for initial level flight at say 1/2 throttle, my plane should have a tendency to climb more near the end of my flight than at the beginning, as the balance point moves back. Does this sound right?
Yes, and it applies to almost every model. However the difference is tiny and not something to bother about in most cases. As it loses weight it will also contribute to a tendency to climb since lift now exceeds weight. Competition aerobatic fliers who use pumped engines will site the tank at the CG so that there is no change in trim caused by weight distribution through the flight. As the model loses weight it will start to climb, but the difference is so extra tiny that even competition fliers can ignore it.
Full size airliners are flown at the most economic attitudes, i.e a particular AoA in the cruise. As the tons of fuel burn off, lift now exceeds weight. If the pilot does nothing, the plane will slowly gain height, this is known as cruise climbing. If he has to stay at that flight level he can either lower the nose to reduce AoA, or reduce power to stop the climb. But he can't lower the nose for economic reasons, as the plane would go faster but be at a less efficient AoA and he must keep it at the best AoA. So he is forced to reduce power and by the end of the flight the result of reducing power and holding up the nose to maintain best AoA can mean the plane is flying quite a bit slower than it was at the start of the cruise. Flying is fascinating dynamics!
Harry