I use the effective wing area. You are always suppose to do the wing area in the middle. This is the wing area of the model now the amount of the wing area exposed to drag is a different number that would not include the center fuse portion.

If you were to analyze it like an Engineer you would need to the look at the area of the fuse as well. In this case it would be a top/Bottom view. A free body diagram to include the forces might actually include any lifting done by cheek cowls and landing gear struts. Any fillets would be applied to the lift and drag associated with the model as well as wing thickness and any subfin- dorsal fin appendages would work in the lateral direction.

This is a pretty anal way to look at it but the F-16 has really small stubby wings and one heck of a flying fuse. It can all get really complicated but if you calculate numbers as a reference like moment arms and CG as a percentage of MAC then a bunch of these things all get shuffled into the noise and don't count too much. In the end. The MAC CG reference is nothing more than a reference. It is not a holy grail of getting a model to fly properly and it doesn't carry much weight with me. I look at what the numbers are to tell if I'm close. That is all nothing more. I would say in my experience the number up around 30-33% MAC tend to fly too tail heavy for me. While 25% tends to feel a bit too nose heavy.

I will say that the models I have flown in recent years all ended up about at this 27-28% number and flew well there. If I was building a model from the ground up this is what I would shoot for. If I had a model already built tested and produced as a kit like my Pinnacle, the Astral XX, or the Zeque I would use the CG recommended by the designer and change it to my preference. In most cases I have found that I like my models much more nose heavy than the designer suggests for sequences. This results usually in the need for a little more positive in the wing than they call for. This also means that my models need rudder on knife edge and they need down elevator inverted too even on 45 deg lines they need down elevator inverted and rudder on the knifes.

On helping lots of guys I find less experienced guys try to run the CG aft to get the model to snap better and roll better. This is usually the case because they have not learned the coordination needed to rudder the rolls. Its a tough skill but reality is once you learn it the models fly so much better. I actually have trouble with models so balanced that they fly on knife with no rudder. The indoor foamies are like this the Sypher I flew at the ETOC and the Tensor are the same. Put it on knife and it stays there. Throttle up to climb and throttle down to descend really a weird feeling especially trying to fly precision and not 3D.



Troy