The covering is the American flag, I think its the only one available... I'll try and snap a few pics but I can see the sheeting through it. Not noticable at more than 5ft so no big deal really, just something I noticed.

Motor selection, Saito 1.50 sounds good, but I was thinking AUW would be near 13 so was planning on a 1.60 2 stroke. I'm sure you'll be flying before me so let me know how that works I might go with a 1.50 as well being that 4 strokers are better smokers from what I've seen.

I'll have to check the manual again, I didn't realize it was an option to use the screwes instead of the springs, rather I thought they were both required, hence the idea to ditch the springs and hooks and place nylon bolts instead.

I did notice the oversized gap in the landing gear channel... and I'm having to ditch that gear for CF... to me, it just looks wrong, feels way too heavy for my liking.

The rear feathers fit perfectly like you said, and I like the setup a lot better than previous .40-.60 size birds where you have to slide the stab covered in epoxy through a slit and clean the mess later. The tube and alignment pins are spot on and I hope more companies adopt this. As I said earlier, I want them to be removable if it can be done without compromising flight safty or stability. I just think the size of this bird needs it. I have a Sequoia to haul it in but am considering a ne car next year thats a lot smaller and I dont want to have to buy a sealed roof rack, or a trailer.

Anyway so far so good, glad to see that people are giving this plane the credit it deserves despite the infamous customer service of a couple of distributors.