Thanks jworosylo,

I thought the same thing, and took all the previous fixes off, and re-mended smarter and lighter. The only extra weight on the plane is 3 mini zip ties (holding the tail section on) and a little bit of tape reinforcing the the seem that holds the two sides of the fuselage together. It did not make any difference.

My whole problem may be attributed to the motor slowly burning out...this afternoon I went out and shortly after launch the motor quit all together. Thankfully I retained servo control and was able to bring it down with out damage. I have the very first motor still, so I am going to do some troubleshoot tonight to make sure it was the motor that burned out and not any of the electronics.

Outside of my problem with the motor, I still would very much like to find out about the best way to gain altitude (Into the wind vs. with the wind).... Tips or techniques that others have found worked for them.