gboulton, Nice picture showing the Venessa in use. I'll be assembling one this weekend.
I started the original post questioning what part of the plane should be level when balancing.
I see where you have put your level, I dont really have anything flat like that on my tiger fuse to go by.
I balanced the plane on two dowels which worked ok but then I was noticing I could have the nose down or up and still balance on the dowels.
So what part of the plane should be level when doing this. I guessed that with 0 incidence on my wing and tail, they should be level?
So I was putting a small level on the tail (supporting it with my hand because of the weight of the level)

Also, My canopy will be over my CG so I guess I'll put masking tape on it to make any marks... But I'll lose them as future reference points when I remove the tape. Why do they say to balance low wing models with the canopy down.

Like I had posted, I still think I'm nose heavy but dont have enough flying experience to tell for sure.

I was talking to some of the guys about doing flat spins ( watching them do it ) And got as high as I dared and tried a couple. My nose always pointed down, It was more of a spireling dive down than a flat spin.

I'm going to add 1/4 oz weights to the tail ( 1 at a time ) and see how it flys.

I'll use the venessa to see how I balance before and after adding weight. If I like the way it flys I'll then go in and move my equipment around.

Steve