At one time I was concerned about the weight thing. I really tried to keep the weight down on my DA powered Extra. Mine weighs in just under 15 lbs. (please read my entry on the other thread cause I gave a 1st flight report w/ pics) Even before I bought the plane, I thought that at fifteen pounds I believe the wing loading was approaching 30 oz/in per sq ft. Not Good for 3D flying right?!

Well I beleive the the airframe design with higher wing placement really helps this plane to be very stable, even with the heavier wing loading. This plane flies great! It will do any thing I can throw at it. It is a little tail heavy, about 1/4", the back of the recommended CG range, and it does have a little faster sink rate on landings, so I do have to keep a slightly higher than idle setting when landing. Yes I think a Moki 2.10 would fly this thing great, but I wanted to step up to gas. And the DA / Extra 260 combo made complete sense.

As far as phantom weight is concerned, I too weighed every thing before final installation, and I thought I was going to end up w/ 14.5 lb airplane. Right off the bat, like all of the other ARF's I built (assembled) I CA glued down all joints I could reach just for peice of mind. I also fiberglass reinforced the front part of the engine box. I did eventually glue the elevator stabs in because each flight the fit was getting looser. My landing gear delaminated so I repaired that w/ CA and dental floss wrapping (it works great so far w/ six grass landings on it)
Don't forget nylon zip ties, foam rubber pads, velcro fasteners, misc. servo and mounting screws, it all adds up. But with a plane that performs this could, it could weigh 16 lbs and I wouldn't care.

Rennie