It's finally time for the reveal. Overall I was very pleased with the final outcome. I have a friend who made the detail graphics for me but he is unable to do complex things. So for now the new Flash will be flying without the Thunderbirds emblem on the Vstab and the flag bar on the nose. I'm thinking of equipping myself for dry transfer decals but I'm not in any hurry.
I was a little nervous that my new tail would be heavier than stock negating the advantage the new Ultra wing affords - reduced nose weight due to increased sweep. I needn't have worried. In fact my new tail is as light or lighter than stock. Keep in mind my classic as flown used two 4000mah 2s lipos for the RX and one 4000 for the ECU- all of them as close to the nose as possible. In its current Ultra configuration I replaced the RX batts with two 2200s and had to move the ECU battery back beside the UAT (as seen in the cockpit pics). This is a radical departure from the way it was - and MUCH lighter! I also had to move the fuel pump farther back. It now lives under the front of the main tank.
Final all-up weight came in at 22.8 lbs dry. That's with a JetCat Titan SE (160 newtons). I adjusted battery position until my CG is right at 230mm back from wing/fuse junction in front. Even at 230 back it is not too far aft. I believe it could go back a couple more mm for totally neutral handling. At that point it would be nibbling at the ragged edge of tail heavy though. I was very pleased with the new Ultra Flash handling. It jumps off the ground much easier that before and full flap handling is completely straight forward - the opposite of the CF.
Bottom line: I'm very happy with my new toy airplane
