Mustang51

My Feedback: (25)

It's also a well known fact that a P38 has tricycle landing gear that when retracted, even though the weight of the struts and wheels are shifted rearward, It does not cross the cg, hence , not effecting a P38 in the same manner as a F4U, or P40..As I stated before. When the gear is down, the plane should be slightly nose heavy, when the gear is retracted, the plane should be "ON THE CG".

Here's the point to all of this...
The cg "IS" the cg. It's not movable although there is a slight "range" to which it falls.
I would think that if a builder\flyer is going to try something as complex\expensive as a P38, he would have the intelligence to keep his aircraft in the cg range. That means (in the case of the P38) that he would ballance the plane so that it is on the cg in flight configuration, and as close to the cg in landing configuration as possible, and that usually means a slightly nose heavy condition(which is always more desireable then a tail heavy one). No one in their right mind would build a P38, ballance it with the gear down, and NOT check it with the gear up to see where the ballance falls, hance avoiding a wheels up, tail heavy airplane.
Mike, I think you know what you're doing here. I would suggest however that you try to get the nose heavyness with the wheels up out of the airplane. With the added weight of two full fuel tanks and an already nose heavy airplane, you're aproaching a grossly nose heavy situation.
Get the plane wheels up, no fuel and ballanced on the cg, you'll be fine. The weight of the Glennis wheels is nominal

-Dave