Hopefully you aerodynamics gurus can shed a little light on something for me. I have a funfly plane and I am wondering what effect will placing the engine closer to, or farther from, the lead edge of the wing have on the flying characteristics of the plane. This is assuming that the CG is kept in the same location by moving the radio equipment to compensate for the moving of the engine for and aft.

Will this have no effect whatsover (as the CG is the same) or will it effect only slow speed flight, only high speed flight, or perhaps only the manuevers that are more in the 3D area? I am wondering if the fact that if there is more or less material (mass??, not weight), out in front of the wing (and CG) will this effect the flying.

Hope this makes sense and gets the brain cells to working.

I think what you are trying to descibe is the differences of having a short or long nose moment. I'm fairly sure that a long nose will help smooth out the plane. And it may also help taxiing because the torque of the prop is farther from the verticle axis of the landing gear.

I've tried that on some of my fun fly's, can't tell any difference. JOHN

Theoretically, moving the engine back and sliding the radio gear forward to balance should decrease the MOMENT OF INERTIA.
The plane should then respond more quickly to elevator (rudder) inputs, and not overshoot when the inputs are neutralized, such as when you wish to recover from a spin. External influences will also have more effect, so the plane may be darty in turbulence.