Brad,

The weight of the "best" of the birds is just over 13#. The excess here is caused by hanging a Hatori pipe/header and hardware under the belly of the plane off the YS 140L and carrying a redundant JR 1750 battery pack and switch.

I spoke to Dave Patrick about this plane (original designer) and he suggested that Horizon beefed up the plane and made it heavier than what he originally penned. Having one of the first releases of this plane, we discovered that the firewall mounting and the landing gear area needed additional structure. We did this on the early ones and the factory did this on later models.

Bottom line, even at 13#, if you move the balance point back between 6.25 and 6.50 and reduce the elevator throw, you will have a great performing aircraft---and it lands nose up and slow without being tipsy. You have to love these planes.

What about others and their experience with flight performance and balance?

Tim Adams