I have 811's in mine but they are a bit pricy.I too have pulled the landing gear off mine while landing. My only complaint with this plane is when you give it full up real hard and fast it always falls to the right and I think it is because of that little wire they give you to connect the two elevator halves. Kinda hard for me to explain the side with the servo attached stays stiff while the other side gives some. The carbon rods deffinatly need 30 min epoxy, either do it now or you will be doing it later. This was my second plane too it slows down better than any plane I have seen for landing. I got a H9 Extra 330 33% after this plane. I thought it would be the same way landing. After 4 $30.00 props I learned that plane could not slow down as much. Good luck Use the expo in the radio and you should have a lot of fun with this plane.