Centre Of Gravity

Playing around in the shop today as the weather aint playing ball AGAIN! and I've built a little hanger I found online to test the cog on some of my scratchbuilt planes, It just goes to show how much better you can get your planes to fly when the cg is dialled in. I know most here buy their planes in kit form but i still hear comments about the cg being out on the kit builds, How do you guys test your cg on the planes without flight after flight doing inverted etc?
The 1/3 rule is always a good starting point imo but finding that sweet spot is another matter.

Btw some of mine were off by 1/4 inch, I've adjusted lipo position to rectify the cg.

Kieth

Simple question but complex answers required
here are a few links you should find useful.

Primarily for 3D but a lot still applies to most aircraft

http://www.nsrca.org/trimA.htm

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=904349
In particular the "Setup and Maiden" info @
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=907728#post10328639

On your "scratchbuilt planes" also be aware Decalage angle (also known as Longitudinal dihedral the difference between the angle of incidence of the wing and angle of incidence of the horizontal tail) is very important
and will also affect trimming.

Paul

Thanks for the reply paul it certainly makes for a good read with the "Doc", I read his articles when I first started out and for other members here I would strongly suggest you take a look at the links paul has posted.