Thanks for the advice Greg. I get your drift, balance is always a concern. However, I am confident I can manage that issue with servo locations and battery placement. I like the plane, and have ordered it. I have searched high-and-low for a 30-50 oz trainer with ailerons and foam construction. Just can't find anything even close. The small (sub-25 oz) birds are too squirrly, or don't have ailerons... or they are wood builds... or they are RTF's with all the gear (redundant and wasted). I like this bird too much to pass it up... it's perfect for Bill's (father-in-law) needs.

The lighter gear will help a lot. We can always upgrade to bigger stuff if necessary later. After reading your thread, and seeing the videos, it seems the 2808/24 will be plenty to make it fly with reasonable power. Granted, will be somewhat weak in hard acrobatics unless we push the hardware over limits a bit. No worries though, the quality stuff takes it in stride.

If you say the 2820/12 is twice the stock power, then we are golden with the 2808/24 for power. It should fly fine. If you say you are getting 15 minutes on 1800 mAH, then our 2100 mAH lipo's should get us similar flight times... not bad! With 2.7 oz's lighter in motor, and another ~4.5 oz's lighter on battery, we should be 7-8 oz's less than yours .

What is your current AUW now with the AXI aboard? I see lot's of notes about what you saved, but missed your starting AUW.