Yeah, a canard would be a stripped elevator servo waiting to happen. But flying wings are fairly common, as they are even more efficient. (Though I have to admit, I've wondered what effect some thrust vanes just behind the prop would have, but I digress)

Ok, the effects of the stab make sense to explain what I thought I experienced in practice. Thanks for sorting that out, I don't know why it didn't occur to me. (fwiw, I tend to move my CG as far back as I can handle, which is pretty far back, if nothing else, the quick "twitch" is a useful trait at times).

What about a flying wing? Same effect? No stab, but you still have a balance of forces?

As for airfoils, yes, I do use a "differnet" airfoil, in fact, I came up wit it on my own (a lot of messing around in Profili looking at L/D graphs at the higher alpha vaules. I wanted an airfoil with a good L/D at very high and very low alpha, but I didn't care much about the middle range. Kind of the opposite of the typical "drag bucket" effect would be nice.)

I don't think a funfly airfoil would work very well in combat. For one thing, the drag is way to high at high AOA, so while you can turn, you can't hold that turn forever and you can't go fast though the turn. Also, the drag in level flight is too high, so you'd be slower. Thicker wings do tend to be stronger, but they are also heavier (we're talking solid foam wings here, and fairly dense foam, not that white stuff). Also, I personally don't use a symetric airfoil, as my tactics don't use a lot of negative maneuvers (not that I don't do ANY, just that I trade outside turning for better inside turning), and an airfoil with some camber will produce more lift for less drag than a symetrical one. There are guys that do use symetric airfoils, and do a lot of outside looping in their tactics, but it's not my flying style. I do, however, use a fairly blunt LE. I also tried turbulators a bit ago. Results were inconclusive, so I stopped doing it as it increased build time too much.

Dick, Yeah, it's all about wing loading. Most competitive combat ships have wingloadings around or well below 12oz/sqft. 600+ sqin of wingarea, some guys are over 700, on 2.5-3.5lb planes. Combat plane design frequently comes down to trading armor for performance. Add strength and durability, but give up turning. Differnet guys make the tradeoff at different points.