Chris, I built this plane last winter and have been flying it over the summer, if I had to build it again I wouldn't. I thought the kit was hard to build and the quality of the wood was poor, I had to replace alot of the balsa. The plane is a pig weight wise, mine came in at almost 14lbs with a Roto 35 motor for power. I tried to keep it as light as possible. The plane looks great in the air and flies good, not great, just good. If I had known this before hand I would have chosen another kit. If I were you I would try to find a Midwest Super Stinker. The set up you have planned sounds great, save it for a better plane.