I have built and flown a number of the Byron Staggerwing Beech’s, and in my opinion the added weight won’t hurt it much. It may have a slightly higher stall speed due to higher wing loading. Also I would beef up the main landing gear struts to handle the added weight. The plane wants to float in ground effect when landing so the added weight should help it land easier. The plane flies very well but watch doing high G maneuvers that could damage the horizontal tail. Some installed flying wires on the tail group to help. The Cloud Dancers who used to put on flying displays featuring Byron aircraft did that due to some of the maneuvers they did with it and they over powered it with a 50cc engine and it would stay up with the ducted fan jets of that era. I really injoyed mine. After programming my transmitter it would do fantastic knife edge flight down the runway. The real Staggerwing was really strong and was capable of doing mild aerobatics, even though it was classified as a utility aircraft. I have flown a G model at over 200 mph and can attest to there speed and grace. The aircraft that Byron used as their prototype was based at Mansfield, Ohio close to where I live and was owned by Jim Gorman one of the founding fathers of the E.A.A. And the Staggerwing Beech Museum. Jim allowed me access to his plane for photographs for documentation and then was able to have my model photographed with the full scale aircraft when finished. We then took the Stagg for a flight where he wound her up past 220 mph! He also let me fly it for a while and can attest to the great balance Beech designed into this aircraft. It(Staggereing Beech) was extremely light on the controls for the size and weight of the aircraft. It was very agile as well.