The Hacker website will be going through some revamping in the coming weeks. We are working on getting the application chart up for the C-50 series in the meantime.

Comp-ARF now has the former templates that we made while putting the Rev-Pro together. I don't know when they will offer the E-version, but I would imagine with-in 2 months. They are releasing a bunch of planes at this time so this is where it falls in line. Don't know the life of a Hacker, but the one in the Funtana flown at the 2002 TOC is still flying on its original set-up. If you treat it well, it will treat you well. The new batteries are going to be available with-in a month or 2 if I remember correctly.

I had flown the 8A batteries, but only before the competition. I could not make weight with them, that is why we used the 6A ones. I only flew 10 minutes or less because I knew that I was pushing the limits on the batteries running this set-up. I did fly a few 12-minute flights, and everything was fine, but I didn't have a need for many of those long of flights. I never did have any problems with any of the packs (8A or 6A packs) while I was at the Worlds. I did "weaken" a Worlds pack a couple of weeks ago. We were testing the Funtana and I shouldn't have flown it soo long and I think I ruined a pack. Expensive lesson learned.
The model is heavy by electric pattern plane standards. Remember though, this is a glow plane that was converted. The E-Factor is a great e-pattern design, but the original is not a competitive F3A machine. I have not seen or flown the new version so can't comment on it.
As for the battery questions, I would ask Charlie at TP about that. I don't know enough about it to comment on it. I know that in my F3A rounds, I was using anywhere from 4200-4400mAh each time. We had talked about trying a 2P pack, until we remembered what we were using each round.