Banktoturn.......... AMEN!

To the others I want to make a general observation.

In my limited use of aerodynamics as an aero eng in industry I usually had a set of reference books that filled up a 3 foot shelf next to my desk. They were carefully selected as there was rarely room for more in our crowded conditions. I personally barely knew where to look to get the answers for my problems. I was able to determine that the absolutely mind numbing mathematically precise and rigiorous description of aerodynamics and fluid mechanics made it a well defined science.

The thing is that most of us need to run wind tunnel tests to have even the faintest clue as to what the math means. Our lack of understanding does not change the purity of the math or theory. It is there and is quite precise and elegant. We just don't understand it all the time.

This unfortunately leads to witch doctorery, black magic and, finally, common knowledge.

However learn to use the tools that are available to most modelers. In engineering when we were presented with a problem the first thing we did was a literature search. Why repeat the same work again and again? If I wanted to determine if the horizontal stab placement makes a big romping effect of the flying qualities of a model I would do a search of the literature (model magazines). What I would find is, not surprisingly, most stabs are aft of the wing and all over the ball park in fore, aft, up and down positioning.

Conclusion - If the airplane has flown successfully then the stab must be in a good position.

If I focus my search to precision aerobatics I find that most of the stabs are in line with the wing so it must not be too bad of a placement. It would seem to be the best if I wanted the airplane to fly the same upside down as right side up. Actual use in winning airplanes finds this to be the case.

If I look at the airplanes with stabs on the tip of the vertical tail I tend to find high performance gliders and some big transports but no sport or aerobatic models. I may not know why but I would probably not put the stab on the tip of the vertical in a model like yours. But inline with the wing, sure.

Look at what has worked before and use that as a guide line. Then evaluate the results and see if Common Knowledge is right. Sometimes it is. But most of the time it is like most gossip, stretched a lot because of uncontrolled hot air.