stangflyer
I like 'em "BIG"!
CG is nowhere near as important as proper setup of the rest of the plane. You can 3D the snot out of a nose heavy plane, no problems. You need the right size plane, the right power to weight ratio, the right wing loading, the right control surface size, throw and servos. Take out any one or multiples of those and you chances of success goes down. As an example, the maiden I did the other day turned outto be a CG about 1.5"+ ahead of where it needed to be......yup, 3D's because that was the only factor missing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tXgGsjG4uc&list=UUmN3am68lG1nMdT8ujT6GyQ#t=271
Basic setup as Bunky says....shoot for neutral. Tail heavy sucks for everything except straight nose up flying, and nose heavy flies cleaner lines and is easier to land but suffers only slightly for 3D. If you want to torque roll for 10 minutes go tail heavy, otherwise no.
What is neutral? Neutral is when you trim out your plane and fly a flat and level line at half throttle or slightly more, roll inverted and your plane DOES NOT climb and the nose fall off just barely. If it climbs, you are too tail heavy.....if it pulls the nose to the ground you are slightly or way nose heavy depending on how bad. You can do the 45 degree upline thing but that is less accurate because a fully symmetrical wing needs AOT to generate lift so at a 45* upline your wing is lifting and will not show nose heavy as accurately.
As for your .40 slab, your kinda on your own there but I imagine similar principals apply.
As for simulator planes, what I do is modify the heck out of them. Scale them up slightly to see better for one, add about 30% to the weight to make them less floaty, modify the travel on the surfaces and engine power to be more realistic or as realistic as possible. Then fly the crap out of them while the ground is white outside!
Awesome information. I, like most others believed a little tail heavy is what was needed to get good 3D capabilities. But I know balancing my Edge tail heavy makes it a complete monster to fly. I have it pretty much neutral. My Slick on the other hand? Yeah, there is NO HOPE for that hopptie. It is cantakerous no matter what I do with the CG. My big 260 is just ever so slightly tail heavy. I really like the way that plane flies. Penetrates well, responds crisply and will hang forever on the prop. But then again, as someone else mentioned... higher quality airframes just fly better all the way around. Thanks Terry for your insight.