No, the Edge 540 is not a pain the the arse. The belly cowl on the VF 58 in Extra, now that is a pain in the arse!. But it is actually easier to just build a wood and monocoat one than it was to deal with it. I delt with it til a short arrival.... into a ditch.... dumb place to put a ditch on short final just off the flying surface!.... But was very easy. I just took a 1/4X1/4 balsa strip, cut groves about half way thru it perpendicular to its length so it would bend with the wing, and glued it on. Did a back bulkhead for it and a front bulkhead to match the fuse formers and then glued a 1/4X1/4 bottom edge between them. Sanded and monocoated. Finally cut the two holes for the wing bolts and glued in wing tubes. Worked great and no hastle. Unfortuantely, elegant solutions like VF's nice molded belly pan is sometimes not as workable as a tad of building. But the Edge pan done like the pics on the web site is not much of a deal. But what do I know? I'm an old scratch builder. Heck, I'm so greatful to have such a pretty,well built and superb flying plane arf'd for me that if I ever come face to face with Chuck or any of the other folk who used to be VF I'll still kiss em just out of gratitude! Nothing will get someone out of control line and into RC quicker than scratch building competative control line precision aerobatic ships.

bob