I was in the same position as you recently and like you I'm not crazy about the looks of the Four Star. In my search I found that there is an "improved" Four Star available called the Venture 60. It has all the great characteristics of the Four Star but it has a lot better looks and is an improvement on the original Four Star design.

The Venture 60 was designed by Bruce Tharpe who was the original engineer who designed the Four Star 40 and 120 while he worked at Sig. Bruce left Sig to start his own company and sell his own designs. The whole story can be found on his web site at www.btemodels.com.

I just started my Venture 60 and so far it looks like a great plane. Bruce hand picks all the wood himself so the quality is even better than that from Sig! The finished plane is reportedly almost a pound lighter than the Four Star 60 because Sig has added a lot of unnecessary weight which should make the Venture 60 an even better flyer on top of the design improvements.

The people I have talked to say it flies maybe a little faster than the Four Star. I will find out once mine is in the air. If you are considering a Four Star you will probably want to take a look at the Venture 60.

Also check our www.venture60.com - this is a web site put together by one of Bruce's customers and has loads of pictures of how different people built their planes and any mods they did.

[:@]