man, i don't know what the heck to do. i think i've moved on a little more away from the "beginner" experience level in just some of the engineering attempts and complete re-engineering tasks, but for some reason, the take off and inverted engine business is jacking me all up. i don't know if i can even try to mention competing with the cub. BTW, it's a GP .40 kit. 76" span and probably about 5.5 scale, seeins how the 5 scale is a little bigger and the 6 scale is a little smaller. plus i'm going to put split flaps on it and try for opening/closing door and was even tossing the idea of the green house cockpit of the L-4 grasshopper. more of a frankenstein than anything i would attempt to call it. i don't have much help or support from the wifey as far as buying and building whatever kits i want and she can't understand the thought of having a full squadron or fleet of aircraft to choose which one i want to fly on any given day. if i want a new one past my limit of 2 , i have to get rid of one, because i can't fly them all at once. now that would deffinately have to take me on to intermediate or possibly advanced flying skills. but all in all, i'm using a .40 fx from O.S. and a bisson pitts. i would love to switch over to a 4-stroke, but again, the money and wife thing. should have bought a plane instead of the wedding ring. damn budgeting!!! i was just thinking of putting the engine in inverted so i could install both sides of the "dummy" engines and hide my embarrassing 2-stroke engine that should be a 4. i do believe in scale very much, but with the engineering feat that i must overcome to achieve what i want anyway, i may as well make it from my own imagination of how i think mine would be built if i had a full scale one to compare it to. so, no, i don't think i will be attempting the scale comp's with this one. maybe some day down the road i'll trade the wife for an aero machine worthy of my skills and competition.[8D][8D] i wasn't aware of the fuel tank centerline and carb centerline business before. the plane was my messerschmitt, which is designed for the inverted engine, but i may have had the tank the wrong way. i ran the motor for probably 3 tanks on a test stand to break it in, so i thought it was running great. just for some reason when the plane is right side up or the engine is inverted, it's a pain in the butt. it's an O.S. .32. the .40 may be a completely different beast and may be a lot better than the .32. well, thank everyone for the input thus far and i will try to decide what i'm going to do with the wife , and pick out the next project. i do have a thread going in the kit building forum that is going to include all of my construction photos and nightmare re-designing for all of my ideas if anyone would be interested and i figure out how to put photos in the posts. it's titled "split flaps on a cub" or something like that. going to be very interesting to see the out come and actually fly it. scare the !!!! out of me to fly it actually. i sank a lot of time in building my trainer and after all the stories i heard about learning to fly starting on a tail dragger, i kind of got a little sick and naseated when zero hour came. anyhoo, this is getting way too long and i'm probably putting people to sleep or something. adios.....[8D]