I have had a Senior and flown it off and on for 25 + years.

Basically it flies great for training. Can go very slow and is self correcting. Also lands slowly with a very smooth glide. You will not find a better flying trainer with the possible exception of a Senior Telemaster.

Building it is a booger. The problem is the birdcage rear fuselage. Very strong and light weight but it involves a lot of careful cutting, sanding and fitting of balsa sticks, especially for the angled cross braces. IMHO definitely a task reserved for an advanced builder. I had built multiple complicated stick and former Guillow's kits and found the Senior build a challenge. I hardly ever say this but would consider the ARF if you do not have advanced building skills.

I added ailerons. I trimmed off a bit of the trailing edge. reinforced and added strip ailerons. There are also plans out there for adding barn door type ailerons. The rudder only turns were just a bit slow and rough to me and you are going to fly with ailerons anyway so may as well start with them.

You do not need a big engine. I fly with an old well worn Saito 52 4 cycle and used a kind of burned out KB 40 before that. If you are taking off from anything but pavement or putting green height grass, I would consider a bit more engine like maybe a strong 46 to 60 2 stroke or a 70ish 4 stroke. My son is about to learn take offs on grass so I am about to drop a 4 stroke 72 in.

I did the tail wheel. Basically just bent some wire and epoxied to bottom of the rudder. Plane lands so lightly I have never felt the need for a springy unit myself. I like the ground handling better this way and those slow 3 point landings are great fun.

Finally consider the size. Unless you have a big SUV, that wing is going to be a bear. Even if you do a 2 part wing, that fuse is long and the tail feathers are huge. The Seniorita is 2/3 the size. It has the same great looks and I think the same great flying characteristics. It is much more manageable and will fly great with a weak 2 cycle 40 or my old Saito 52 4 banger. I even flew it with a 26 4 cycle for a while. Takeoffs were a bit long but very even realistic on the wing type flight.

I have just about decided to rebuild the broken fuse on mine and switch Mark over to the smaller plane. Again, the ARF would be a lot less and I have seen several Seniorita ARFs that fly great.

I will try to post pics soon.

(Later.) Checked and the Sr and Srita ARF both have ailerons. Both ARFs are out of stock so guess folks are stuck with kits for now.

Hobby Lobby has D/Cd the most excellent Telemaster 40 size and the ARF Srs are on back order until at least October.

And now a bit of heresy. The tough part of kit assembly is the birdcage. Usually folks can get the uprights OK with a little sanding but those diagonals are very tough. Have a friend who gave up. He assembled the frame with the uprights which was not too bad. Instead of the cross pieces, he glued light weight 1/6 balsa to the sides and tops of the tail frame. Added minimal weight and made a very strong structure, probably stronger than the original. Just a thought.

I skinned my Sr. tail in a repair after a crack up and have had no problems in over 20 years. Going to do the same for my Seniorita rebuild.

Tom