I kind of agree that the "old is no good" philosophy is crap. It seems like when I was growing up, Pattern was defined by those who could afford it. Now that many of us can afford what was flown in the 70's and 80's, now it's no good. Sorry, but my dream is to have a pattern plane with retracts that I watched for 20 yrs, but could never afford.

I'm very inexperienced in RC. Except, I'm very experienced with similar arguments in Control Line stunt - where the Vintage competition now outnumbers the up-to-date ones.

As far as the Kaos, it seems a wonderfully straightforward design. The weight issues are probably the result of over-bred puppy mills - a lack of attention to quality, and shortcuts that have developed over years of over-production.

In my own opinion, the Dirty Birdy or U.F.O. (there's also a Model Aviation 40-sized Alpha) are much prettier planes. They were the natural progression in Bridi's designs, and all addressed the shortcomings listed above. Yet, they are no more complicated to build. RCM has the plans and will send reprints of the construction articles, too.