I am building my second USL right now. Learned a couple valuable lessons with the first one. Stock servos dont work on the elevator (first crash) Upgraded to hitech 645 on 6v. I also moved the servos to the rear of the fuse mounted vertically as shown early in the post. I made a trap door in the bottom of the plane to put the battery in and out, used a 1200mah 6v nmh battery. The only other area of concern for me is the wing bolt down plate. It pulled out on the final flight of USL-1. USL-2 will have a little more beef in that area. As for the joiner and the front dowels, the wing did not come apart in the crash and i could not break it at the joint even with may foot on it when i was breaking it up for the burning ceremony. The fuse all broke apart at the factory seams so the glue is the limit of the structural integrety.

I use an osfs 120 with a supercharger on it. Makes it a little nose heavy with the extra weight and the moter sits right out at the end of the stock mount but the servos and battery in the tail help to offset it. I think as long as the weight is forward and rear when you go to hover it makes it easier with the weight right behind the prop and in the tail. I run a 16X8 apc now and im going to an 18X6 on the new one.

I also use a hitek hs81 for a throttle servo to save a little weight up front. I think i will try the mid mount tank this time, had not considered that before.

The saito 180 will do well on the plane as well, i have one on my bipe and love it. The super charger just makes it sound so much better. Unlimited vertical and wing screaming speed. Hopefully USL-2 lasts a little longer that the first one did.