Had a ground class, that was interesting as a discussion with my instructor.
Since Tomahawks are serious light planes, the weight and balance is quite an important step to calculate to make sure the plane is balanced within the given manufacturers specified CG (Center of Gravity).
We went into the pros and cons if you plane was heavily loaded and that it is off the specified range. This may in fact cause a longer take off, reason that you may need more time to reach your climbing speed where your wings are able to capture more airflow to create lift, so works harder to take off.
Once airborne, your plane may take a longer time to reach specified altitude, since your may have to pitch higher than normal weighted planes, as a result higher airspeed required to climb, at the same time higher angle of attack which may cause high stalling speed (this is always a no no factor).
Your plane will fly a shorter distance and eat up a lot of fuel just trying to keep the plane at a certain altitude.
During landing, you will most likely have a higher airspeed to land, since you are trying to keep the plane afloat in a way that you can flare, to have a smoother landing, however flare will be reduced and as a result a hard landing will be experienced with caution of damaging the landing gears.
So if you come across of having a heavier load on the nose (nose heavy), this is similar to flying a heavy plane. Longer time for takeoff, higher airspeed, higher angle of attack and higher stalling speed.
Higher stress load on the wings, since the tail will want to counteract that nose heavy weight.
Reduced flight range, higher usage of fuel.
For landing, it's also higher airspeed during descent, more susceptible to to prop - strike, where your propeller may hit first and create physical damages to the plane.
Although you do have more stability to fly compared to a tail heavy plane.
As for Tail heaviness, the controls are much easier to maneuver, acts as a lighter plane. Take off and climbs are similar to a normal weighted plane.
However the danger of tail heavy planes are that, once you experience a stall, your elevator are unable to act correctly to try and readjust your plane to recover from a stall.
I might missed out a lot of other important info regarding the nose heavy/ tail heavy aspect, and might find that it's all rubbish the next day I read it again LOL since, I'm, writing half asleep. I will do corrections, once I'm more awake hahaha.
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