Well, here's an update.

First to Dean. The U stands for Ultimate, just the manufacturer's name for it. Your diode discussion sounds good, but I may have had the ultimate reason not to go the BEC route. I was flying yesterday with some new packs, and I forgot to put on the velcro self adhesive strips that keep the battery from moving fore and aft. Got away with it for one flight, but on the last flight, I did a hard outside 1/2 loop after a manuever and ejected the entire motor battery pack from the plane. It knocked off the canopy enroute. The plane was upright and fairly high, going downwind, still flying well, so I kind of took my eye off it to follow the canopy down. I thought at first that just the canopy had come off. It wasn't until I turned base to land that I realized I had no power. The model was still controllable right to the landing, which sort of pancaked in a bit. I found the canopy fairly quickly, and there was minimal damage, but it took till the next day to find the cells. They're a bit mushed and I'm hoping that they can be repaired. Anyway, I found a way to get the "Ultimate" open in the motor batteries.

But on a high note. I just finished the first day of a pattern contest here in Lancaster. I have to say the more I fly this thing the more impressed I get. Today was awful, 20 to 30 mph winds, cold as heck. This model handled it with ease. The knock on the electric from the World Champs was that it had problems in wind. Not this model. Best I've ever had. I'm more fired up about pattern now then I've been in years.

Oh, BTW, another somewhat telling bit of info. Gauging the R/C battery voltage drop from flight to flight, I estimate the consumption is about 1/2. Without the vibration those digital servos are working a whole lot less. And I am beginning to believe that is translating into better control of the model. All positives.

This has really been a lot of fun!