Make sure you fly the plane off a smooth surface. I just got mine going a week ago and flew it off a relatively smooth gravel/dirt road. The plane is hard to steer on the ground because of the short fuse. I basically line it up and gun it with a helping of back stick until it lifts off. Be prepared to get off the up though as I have almost stalled it twice "yanking it off the ground" this way. It would be much better I am sure off a paved surface. The stock motor mount is really weak and the glue joints are poor as it seems you have found out. I went brushless with a geared himax and lipos and basically built a reinforced stick mount off the firewall. I took out the rear fuse former under the cockpit, moved the servos as far forward while still allowing me to reach them, used CF pushods and lighter hardware throughout. The plane flys pretty well now though the plastic cowling is really weak. I broke both the wing struts off as they did no align well with the wing and made replacements with 1/32" ply with a piece of wire to reinforce it. I am using wheel collars to anchor the screws through the lower wing which allows for removal quickly. I usually leave the wings on and take the cowl/prop off to unplug the battery. I routed the ESC/battery leads through a handful of holes I cut in the firewall to lose some weight. Will try to get some pics to illustrate here shortly.