[LASS Soaring] "The CG Myth"

[GordySoar at aol.com]

Sooo many guys are out there adding lead to the noses of their models, or  
taking some out in hopes of improving the 'performance' of their models.   (lets 
define 'performance' as task score advantages).
 
When in fact proper contest sailplane balance has NOTHING to do with  
performance.
 
Since the only reason to add lead to the nose a sailplane is to get it to  
fall forward (hard to fly them backwards). 
 
I'll put in a quick note about the goofy term "neutrally balanced" right  
away since like that will come up and its about as dumb a thing as nose heavy,  
or tail heavy.

If the model is neutrally balanced it will fall equally well backwards  as 
forwards. An obvious problem.
 
Nose heavy....if the model has one more dot of nose weight than is needed  to 
make it fall forward, then it will be falling forward and down when  flying 
at normal hands off level flight speed.  And of course that  means you'd have 
to have some up elevator trim to fight that nose downward  inclination....and 
last I checked no sailplane guy wants to have a crooked  sailplane.
 
Okay because you guys tend to get off topic so easily when you can't come  up 
with a good answer for the question asked, I'll ask it again.
 
IF CG has NOTHING to do with 'performance' (task time or landings), then  why 
is it so important to the top contest guys?  Or even simpler...if it  has 
nothing to do with performance, what single word would  describe what proper 
balance provides to the pilot that is sooo important  to the guys on the top of 
the contest score sheet?
 
It is NOT performance :-)... Hint -it starts with the letter C.

Gordy
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