These planes are not built by the same manufacturer...

Wild Hare's are built in Korea (I think) and BME's in China.

As far as dropping weight...

You'd have to go with a CF wingtube, gear, spinner and tailwheel. The stab would have to be rebuilt to accept 1/2" stab tube and the fuse reworked accordingly.

I personally don't think 16.5 is that bad... and with just the wingtube & gear could be right at 16 lbs...

It's not an issue of the plane being great... it's the company it would have to keep and compete with.

And that list of planes was just the 50cc planes... I have a 100cc BME Ultimate almost done, a H9 33% Sukhoi with ZDZ 80, a 34% Chip Hyde Extra coming... and a couple of those Tunnel Visions.

Yeah I DO need to live in Texas, AZ or some such place...

Til that happens (probably never) I need to thin down the fleet to my very most favorite of favorites.

I guess I won't know about the Edge if I don't fly it... hmmmmm.

We'll see if there's a local buyer out there... if not I'll definitely finish it.

Chip is coming out with a new canister called the quiet pipe... I've got one on the way and it may enthuse me enough to install it in the Edge... there is just enough room for a standard can, and this Quiet Pipe is supposed to be the lightest and smallest available...

Ahhh well... we'll see....

Glad to hear you're liking the BME...

In actuality... 16-17 is average for a 50cc plane... the Vision is the first I've seen that will hit 15 and the EF Yak will be 15.5... and the Yak is VERY lightly built... you just can't get an arf any lighter than it and it uses composite gear and CF wingtube/stabtube to get there!. So 1 lb heavier for a studier built plane isn't to bad at all.

And you have to admit... it is well built.