I just checked out that Decathlon and I'll admit- it's one of the nicest ARFs I've seen. And for the price, it's very tempting... How's it fly? I'm slowly convincing myself to get back into model aviation; it's been about eight years since I've flown. When I last flew, it was a Midwest Hotts II with a hairy- chested 60 yanking it around. I'd like something bigger, more scale, and a bit more relaxing to fly this time around. I'm not scared of building, but for under $300 for a very pretty ARF, I'm awefully tempted.

Something else I've been thinking about as well is a Balsa USA 1/3 cub with a four cylinder four stroke fabbed from Gen III 26cc Ryobis. Perhaps an ambitious engine project, but if it could be pulled off, do you think it would be too big to be scale looking, or weigh way too much? The only reason I'm even considering such an engine build is cost- for $1200 or thereabouts, I can get an OS Pegasus that is known to fly the plane. However, it's glow, and costs a grip. If I could buy four Ryobi 1079R trimmers for $560, and spend $100 in aluminum and bearings for the crank case, I'd rather do that. It wouldn't matter if it took me 100 hours to build the engine; that's just as fun as flying it. One last question if y'all are still reading... since the Ryobi in original form puts out about 1 HP, would four of them as one engine produce 4 HP? Up until last night, I've never even considered adding cylinders to an engine, so I'm unsure if the increase in specific output stays linear or is exponential.

God, I feel like a no0b for asking that! lol