Ben,
As for a smaller gasser on the DP, I wouldn't. Again in my opinion gassers under 50cc don't have the power to wieght to pay off for aerobatic planes. Maybe on a high wing something but when you want unlimited vertical the numbers just don't work out. The DP planes are beautifully built but they are light because there isn't a lot of structure there and may not hold up to the vibration of the gasser.

If the only bad point of the Patty is the fact that there are a lot of them out there, what does that tell you? The reason the Patty threads on RCU are so huge is because if you factor price, availability, proven performance, looks and quality there isn't anything else around to compete. It is also many peoples first gas plane and there are a lot of questions during the learning curve on this subject.

I just went through this decision process myself after loosing my first Patty to a mid air. I bought a second one because there just isn't another proven airframe around that I could buy today. I fly at a busy field and know five other guys who have the Patty but I bought it to fly, it's not going to the scale masters.