Need some help from those with a lot of flying time with the SE.
The manual says 3 1/2 from LE. I'm at 3 5/8", not a big deal just never flown it-Is it safe an 1/8" further back on first flight or do i have a big range with plane??????

i fly mine balanced directly on he wing spar and it flies great. I'm sure that an 1/8" isn't going to make much of a difference as far as the behavior of the plane.

The Somthin Extra is pretty forgiving as far as CG goes. You should be just fine 1/8" behind the recommended location. I wouldn't be afraid to experiment with the CG a little after you've flown the plane a few times.

Flying my second one at 1/2" behind spar. My third one is ready for maiden, with CG 3/4" behind spar.

I had the same situation when I built mine... CG was back 1/2" from the spar. Flew fine far as I could tell. You should be fine just being back 1/8".

Folks move their CG back as far as 2" from the spar for 3D flight(anything past this is unmanageable from what I've read).

somegeek

Thanks-appears I have nothing to worry about!

Yeah - you should be fine. With the CG on the spar, this plane is stable but moving the CG back made it more agile in my opinion. I did try adding 2oz to the nose to get the CG spot on and I didn't like it as much since I was already used to flying with the CG back 1/2"... plus I just added weight - didn't shift functional weight.

I've since moved my battery back back to just in front of F5 to put my CG around 1 1/4" back from the spar. Cut a hole in the covering on the bottom to get the pack in there. CA'd a balsa cross member in so I could secure the padded pack. Saved the covering cut-out so I can easily trace patches with 1/4" overlap.

The plane is more agile / sensitive at this point for sure and I enjoy flying it more. My SSE is my favorite overall plane in my hangar.

somegeek

It figures-after hours of changing and figuring to get the CG close to 3.5 turns out you can fly it at 4.25+ back from LE. Well I'm going with it where it's at and see how I like it. I do like planes more on the sensitive side.