Well, I have got my H9 P-51 together and all of the "stuff" has been installed. After much thought and discussion amongst my flying buddies as to which engine to install (OS 61 SF, OS 1.08 or my YS 91), I decided to put my YS 91 in the plane. I was pleasantly surprised that the valve cover doesn't protrude quite as far as I thought it might. The big problem is the ugly muffler. I think I am going to order one of the exhaust swivels and mufflers from Dave Schadel at Performance Specialties. Anyway, the model came out at 8 lbs on the dot. I have the 1000 mah battery pack located directly in front of the throttle servo and the receiver is mouted directly behind it. The model took no weight (nose or tail) to balance. I have a 3.5 " CB Associates spinner (soon to be replaced by a Tru Turn as soon as it comes into my LHS). I did add a pilot to the cockpit but no othere changes to the recommended way Hangar 9 suggests. The retracts took a little work to get the servo mounting tray installed and the retracts working correctly. Nothing wrong with the retracts installed in the model, it is just that the rectangular cutout in the wing center section for the servo is tight and my big clumsy hands don't do well in confined spaces. I opened up the rectangle to get a little better access to the area. I did construct the servo mounting tray outside of the wing and then was able to install the completed tray thru the enalrged servo opening. I did have to add a piece of 1/8" X 1/4" stock to the bottom of the servo mounting tray to get the bottom of the low profile retract servo to clear the bottom of the wing center sectio ply rib. Not a big deal and it worked out well. The instruction manual says to use a low profile retract servo but if you have a standard height servo you might try ot use it. Eventhough the vertical fit would be tight, a standard height servo might work. When you trim the wire pushrods to the rectract, use some really good wire cutters. This is some of the hardest wire I have cut in a long time. I didn't really use the instructions, because the model goes together well and if you have done ARF's before, there is not a lot to figure out. Hope to have maiden flight this weekend.

Later,
Ed