RE: WEIGHT REDUCTION H9 33% CAP
Dick - I agree with you on the lower cost / lower weight route.. a lot easier to do when you are building your own. ARFs are hard to keep lean that's why I don't do them very often... If more people would see how a real light-built plane flew vs. their piggy ARFs, they would probably be more apt to either build one themselves, or pay someone to built one for them.
There are many things I could have done to make the H9 Cap lighter, unfortunately, I wasn't in the mood to convert it back to a kit!!
I use a portable strain gauge, similar to what they weigh real planes with, but much smaller. It takes 3 readings - one at each main gear and one at the tail and calculates total mass. Its accurate to within a few grams and I have it NIST calibrated once a year so I know its accurate. It keeps me honest if nothing else! Its very handy for setting up planes.
It was this same scale that told me my latest (B)ARF project (BME Edge) was way heavier than advertised. I ended up with a 50CC plane that weighs 17.5 pounds and since its very tail biased, taking weight out forward of the CG does nothing so I skipped all the CF accessories! Still flies nice, just not very light.
The sub 23# H9 Cap on the other hand was simply amazing.. !
If one did some serious mods, and used the simple battery approach as you mentioned, rebuilt the hatch ..etc I'll bet 22 pounds would be achievable.. on that engine and wing loading ..wow!
PS: the expensive pilots are 2 oz.. the cheapo's (if you call $30 cheap) are 4-6 oz... ouch. I don't put any pilots in my planes, black out the cockpits -its my trademark. I have heard IMAC usually does not take off points anyway unless you get a CD who is a fundamentalist... its a dumb rule anyway.. and besides.. the 1% deduction really won't have any effect on my score!
DP