First off let me say that I have read all the threads pertaining to the F16 and have no idea
why mine is different than the other 98% of them out there flying with no issues.
But it is - so heres the fun stuff.

I bought my F16 in Sept 06, finally got around to completing it about a month ago (April 07).
Its the air up-air down retract version with the nice latch style canopy.
For power I opted to just use the OS 91 FX with the huge stock muffler spinning a 12x8.
After reading all the threads and all the great reports and per the instructions I balanced her
at 8.5 inches on my trusty CG machine. It took about 12oz in the tail (this should be no surprise
to anyone here thats been following this particular model). I thought this to be about par for
the course.

So feeling confident about this bird I went out for the maiden. I got to the field and got grilled
about the model from my friends and went through the preflight routines. A trusted and, more
importantly, experienced flying buddy was their and helped through the taxi test on a paved
runway. Everything being a check up to this point I pointed her down the runway and took off.

To my surprise the F16 was eratic in pitch. Up down, up down... I fought like mad to keep
her in the air. I finally got her up high enough that I could think for a second. Oh #$*%^$* the
CG's off. Having a 7cap radio my friend dialed down the elavator throws from recommeded low
rate to 35% recommended low rate while I kept the model airborne. Interestingly enough this
tamed the model, so we thought. Great I can fly it, lets get it on the ground. I soon learned that
below about 3/8 throttle my beautiful T-bird was once again acting like a rocket ship and
wanting to point to the moon. #%$#&%$#*. Long story short I got it on the ground but knocked
out the landing gear and the bottom fins in the process. Extremely tale heavy.

So after getting the 3rd degree from my friends about what I might have screwed up I came
home and repaired the landing gear and the bottom fins. At this point with the bird back in one
piece I measured the wings and strakes to see what my calculations would say the CG should
be set at.

Heres the most interesting part. I plugged the info into my CAD program and found that the
recommended CG of 8.5 to 9 inches is about the rear most range just for the wing. Now consider
that the strakes that run from just forward of the wing all the way to the tail is basically about a
50 inch wing. Put that into equation and my calculated CG came out to be about 7.25 inches.

So having the model back together I pulled out the 12oz of tail weight and put her back on the
CG machine. I couldnt believe it, the model balanced right around 7 - 7.25 inches. Let me check
again. Yep, it was right. Lets go fly.

I managed to get to the field over the Memorial Day weekend and it flew like a dream with the
recommened setup minus the CG of course. Inverted flight required just slight down pressure so
that told me and my buddy that flew it also that the CG was about right. All in all a very well
behaved model.

I did botch the first landing and had to replace my prop but the second flight was awesome ending
with a beautiful nose high touch down. A welcome sight considering the crash of just a few weeks prior.

( Hope this helps someone new to this model since I dont think Cermark will be discontinuing it anytime soon)

Cheers.
James