Just started flying mine again after initial disappointment a couple of years ago. Just threw out the hugely heavy alloy undercarriage and replaced it with a carbon job and changed the throttle servo for a micro. All this has bought the weight down to 5 pounds 3 ounces with a SC .53 two stroke. It'll hover okay now and pull out but I'm expecting more improvement when I can get hold of a decent prop. Currently using a two quid Graupner 12x5.
CG is a bit far back with these mods as the nose wants to climb or dive depending what you breathed on last, but I'm enjoying flying it. Forget the manual as far as control surface movements are concerned and go for everything you can get, especially on rudder.
Also modded the nose when I built it as I'm not keen on inverted engines. So I have a nice Spitfireish nose with the engine sidewinder. Pix below are from before u/c mode etc.