My first Spirit was an RTF, not an ARF or a kit. Came prebuilt, all the electroncis installed. They call this the Spirit Select. I really like it. It was the third Spirit Select in our club.

The 4.5 oz is an estimate as the main weight was a pyrmid shapped fishing sinker that said it was 4 oz, but i never weighed it. I added a couple of 1/4 oz weights to finalize it. Depending on the wind I might add another 1/4-1/2 oz under the receiver compartment, or take out 1/4 to 1/2 oz. As I became more familiar with it I was able to trim out some weight. I would guess the actual average ballast was about 4 oz. That was based on two standard servos that were placed under the wing at the factory, just in front of the factory recommended CG.

CG was set based on the factory manual which I think placed it right under the spar.

I may have been a little nose heavy for an accomplished pilot, but for a new flyer like me, it was smooth and stable. I speced it out a few times, though about 50% of my launches did not involve looking for lift as much as looking to sharpen my launch, control and landing skills. I had about 20 launches in 12+ MPH winds.

If lift was abundant, I would ride it, but I had not become a real hunter yet. That was next.

On the new Spirit, a kit, I am looking to see how I can move the servos more forward and perhaps go to smaller, lighter servos. I have two reasons for wanting to do this.

First, to take out as much dead balance weight as possible

Second, I built a power pod for the plane. It will be put on and taken off. I never flew it because I would have had to move the servos in order to put the battery, 13 ozs, over the CG. It was planned, but never done.

If I clear out the area under the wing I can put the power pod and the battery right on the CG and hopefully minimize any rebalancing needed to put the power pod on when I want to.

The kit has arrived. I hope to start building this weekend.