Giving a glider a "Bobbed Nose"?

[mikekosatka]

I have a Graupner Terry, which is a foam 400 powered sailplane.
I am thinking about using a Sagami "long black can 400" in place of the Speed 400 that was stock. This plane tended to be nose heavy in stock configuration and I have about 1/2 ounce of lead in the tail already.
My question is ...
Can I shorten the nose to move the motor back farther in the fusilage to keep the right center of gravity without changing the flying dynamics of the plane? there is no way to move the batteries any farther back, and I can't afford li-polys for this one.
Lead is cheap but I already have a heavier plane than I want.:(
Any opinions or advice?
Mike

[BMatthews]

Go ahead and shorten it to your heart's content.

With the spinner and prop on the front there's no fluid dynamic integrity anyway. It's all turbulent as soon as it hits the separation line of the spinner.... not to mention the wake of the prop even when folded.

The only models that have any chance of drag reducing laminar flow for the nose of the model are the pure gliders with the slip on nose cones that go all the way to the leading edge of the wing. And even those would have to have the correct shape.

In our collective electric case practicalities about balance and prop clearance outweigh any concerns about aerodynamics within reason.

[kjkish]

I already did this exact modification to my own Terry. I didn't want to add tail weight, so I sliced some of the nose off (about an inch to inch and a half) and I even used a long Harry Higley prop adaptor so that I could slide the motor even further back into the nose while sitll allowing the prop to clear the new front of the fuselage.