RE: Cessna L19 Bird Dog
I'd say put a good .60 glow in it and get rid of the heavy batteries and esc. That does seem like a heavy model..
I flew Bird dogs in the Army flight school; It was a fun plane to fly. With full flaps (60 degrees) you could make a VERY steep approach at 100 mph that seemed like it was almost vertical and still touch down on the numbers. FUN!
Dash
an edit.
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I'd also make sure you don't have to add any ballast in the nose for balance., Ddo what you can in the rear to lighten it back there. If you want to mount a towhook, that will add some weight back there. You will need to be able to release the towline if it should become neccessary. If you are thinking about going into the wing and cutting holes in the ribs, that is hardly worth the effort. Opening up the bays on the bottom of the wing between the ribs would have good results. I'm just in the final stages of building a 1/5 scale Pica Waco. The kit had 1/8 lite ply ribs. I built the bottom wing first and thought it felt pretty heavy, so I took to my dremal and cut holes in the ribs, I think I ended up saving less than three ounces. I used balsa ribs in the top wing which was about five inches longer and it came out noticably lighter.
As for the pros and cons of electric, safety wise, I'm much more afraid of elecrtic than glow engines. You have to physically start a glow engine. An electric is "HOT" as soon as you connect the battery. To me, that is a little scary. I"ve heard too many horror stories, one which was in my club!