In FS2004 there is the Center of Gravity picture to the left of the loading form. When operating empty I notice that the crosshair is near the front of the plane and depending how you load the aircraft it will move backwards faster or slower.My question is, where exactly should you aim for when you load an aircraft? Should you place the crosshair dead in the center or try to bring it forward or backward more?Here are two pictures of the same load but in different configuration.1) In the first picture I loaded the passengers near the back (there are three of them plus me, the pilot). In this one the plane is heavier on the left side, I placed more passengers on the left.SETUP- Pilot - 170 (left) Passenger 2 Passenger 3 Passenger 4 Passenger 5 Passenger 6 Passenger 7 - 170 (left) Passenger 8 - 170 (right) Passenger 9 - 150 (left) Passenger 10 Cargo Pod 1 Cargo Pod 2 Cargo Pod 3 - 500 Cargo Pod 4 - 6002) In the second one I loaded them nearer the front and tried to even them out on left and right sides. So there is one passenger on the left and two on the right, plus the pilot on the left.SETUP- Pilot - 170 (left) Passenger 2 Passenger 3 - 170 (left) Passenger 4 - 150 (right) Passenger 5 Passenger 6 - 170 (right) Passenger 7 Passenger 8 Passenger 9 Passenger 10 Cargo Pod 1 Cargo Pod 2 Cargo Pod 3 - 500 Cargo Pod 4 - 600Which config is better? The one with the CG near the center of the aircraft or the one with the CG slighly forward? Thanks for your help.PIC NUMBER ONE...PIC NUMBER TWO...

IRL aft CofG is preferred as it reduces the downforce required by the tailplane (which of course operates in the reverse sense to the wing in terms of lift). Tailplane equipped aircraft use less fuel tha way.I'm not sure FS models this degree of sophistication so the only real use of the CG indicator is to ensure that it remains within usable range. Guess you could experiment with a saved flight and fly it several times with the same fuel load and pax, but move the pax around and see if the fuel consumption changes much.I seem to remember reading somewhere that Grand Caravans tend to load from the front to the back to keep the weight closer to the mainwheels as the fueslage stretch makes loading more important. Allcott

Generally speaking, aft loadings in real airplanes are not desirable. The further aft you load the airplane the less longitudinal stability it has. The airplane