Well, I have been flying mine for about three years now and if I were doing another I would make some small changes.

Currently mine is Moki 1.8 with radial mount also. It torque rolls very fast and quite easily. Once the nose is vertical the rotations become outrageously fast. It takes fast thumbs to keep up with the tail with such quick rotations. While it does not leap out of the hover it does climb away nicely. Mine weighed exactly 13 pounds before adding the tail weight necessary to achieve my prefered rearwards balance. My battery is as far rearwards as I could reach through the wing saddle opening.

So, what change would I make. The motor. OK, the Moki is great. However, why not go with the OS160FX and a nice lightweight mount. Lose more than a pound, have a better power to weight ratio, don't worry about a five gallon break-in period, less vibration, and mount the battery where it is easily accessable. Also, the Moki tends to quickly overheat on warmer days and THAT is not a good thing when torque rolling at low altitude. Next change...well, I had a different mind set when I bought the servos as now and saved a few dollars. Dumb idea. Get good servos with great centering. I used Hi-Tec low profile high torques on the ailerons and the airplane rolled like a big fat lady and did not stop very well on vertical hesitation rolls. Speed, accuracy and tightness is the key here. Lastly, get the fiberglass replacement pieces for the cowl and pants. The ABS cracks quickly and weighs a ton.

Anyway, with the OS160, under 12 pounds is easily achievable, perhaps as low as 11.5. With that weight and power, 3D would be much better even with the smallish control surfaces (do not enlarge them, the airplane is very short coupled and the controls are extremely effective).

All in all, it is a very easy to build (framed and ARC in two weeks in the evenings), extremly durable, flies quite nicely (great knife edge, spins, normal, knife and very very flat, violent blenders, harriers are there with reflex on ailerons, rolling is fantastic with good servos now, lands honestly and easily, and enormous tumbling capabilities) and is a great machine for shows without spending 5K plus on a true giant scale airplane.

Mark

I just realized that I posted to this practically the same thing twice. Hmm, only 38 and Alzheimers is already starting. Hmm, soon I'll go from F3A to dropping candy for the chidren with a J3 Cub.