HI FORESTROKE! THANKS FOR THE INFO! By the way, it's your post, and you can direct the conversation any which way youn want. It's not like we started talking about the price of gasoline! AERONAUT brings up something that I don't think has been brought up, wagging the rudder when you come in. Pointing the nose into the wind helps. But junking the retracts is going to pay dividends. The 60 size pattern ships that are competitive have their strength designed around the retract system, and it's amazing how lightly these planes are built. You won't see too many of these guys thrashing their planes like a stunt flyer would. They are built as lightly, with the same thickness materials as some .25 size planes. A lot of their strength comes from girth, thick airfoils, thick stabs, etc. I doubt that a mass produced pattern ship would be designed as lightly, so the weight penalty of retracts is an unrealistic burden for a sport flyer. Retracts are a prestige, image kind of thing, and don't really contribute to the fun that you should be having with as light a ship as that ZEN 50 can be!