Well here I go replying to my own topic. I think I should add a little more to this tail sag thing and the proper balance. The carrier plane needs to be balance so that the controls are as neutral as possible during the LS portion of the flight. This does conflict with what you want in the HS portion but the two can be balanced out so you can get good results with both. The reason that you get the sag during the down wind portion is much the same as when you fly in say a 6 to 8mph breeze and you notice that the plane will tend to climb when going into the wind and loose altitude when going out of the wind. You can correct for this with the elevator with a little down while flying up wind and then neutral or up elevator while going down wind, this all works pretty good if you have plenty of airspeed. Now in the LS or hang portion of the carrier flight you are going very slow so you will spend some time in each quarter of the circle and when you make altitude adjustments with the throttle( throttle changes altitude and elevator changes angle of attack) the elevator needs to be as neutral as possible or when you add throttle and you are carrying up elevator the tail will be blown down( the deaded sag). I see this quite often and its usually repeated over and over again many time during the same flight. This is caused by the plane being nose heavy, causing the pilot to carry to much up elevator to hold the hang, adding throttle while holding up elevator instead of neutalizing or feeding a little down elevator before you add throttle to adjust altitude. So if the plane is balanced properly and the elevator is neutral when you start down wind and you see you are loosing altitude you add throttle and the plane gains altitude just as planned. I hope that  anyone having this problem and not understanding this explanation will make a reply and let me know so I can do some more explaining. This is one of the most common errors that I see in carrier and it can be overcome with a little effort. eric

Well I was at a Carrier contest last week and I noticed one of the fliers having quite a time with his LS flight. The plane was going in and out of the hang and climbing and diving while the throtle setting was never steady, and usually this flier turned in some very good flights?? After his 3rd attempt at a good flight I heard him say that he had worked on this plane and one of the things he had done was remove weight from the tail and had not had enough time to test fly it before the contest. I checked for the CG and found it to be about 1/2'' aft of the leading edge? With the CG that far forward you would be lucky to get it in the hang and for sure you would not be able to hold it in the hang in all quarters of the circle. Sure must of had a stable HS though. It was another reminder that in AMA Carrier the CG needs to be as far aft as possible and still allow you to do the HS portion of the flight. eric