But - the question is - did our man calulate the wing area correctly? [sm=devious.gif]

You need to determine the planform of the wing to account for the wing area correctly. Same for the canard. Extend the leading and trailing edge lines in to the center line of the airplane. That constitutes your true wing planform. Calculate the area of that shape, and you have your wing area. --- just making sure we are all playing with apples, not oranges.