I picked up my Venus II last evening. Very nice!! Now, I have to do some planning on the build. It has provisions for both rear mounted servo's for the elevator and rudder but also has internally mounted tubes for standard type center fuselage (under the wing) servo mounting with a dual tube setup for the elevator.

I would assume that for 3D type flying, with a requirement on a more tail heavy configuration, the rear mounted servo's is the way to go, and for more pattern, the front mounted (center mounted.. under the wing) configuration is the way to go. Since I am not into 3D, I will go with the conventional center mounted servo's. I like the pull-pull setup on the Excelleron 90 but that does not seem to be an option with this one.. I guess I could convert it over, but that may be beyond my experience level so far. Any thoughts on that?

It also has provisions for mounting the engine in several positions, including upside down sideways, and angular. Is there a preference out there on this? I'm sure a lot of you pattern folks have probably used each of these mounting configurations in the past and have a preference as to what is better/more efficient, and so on.

There didn't seem to be any more real decisions on building, the rest is pretty much straight forward. Since I built the Excelleron 90, which was my first large sized plane, I learned a lot from it and expect that I will use that building experience on this one. But, there is always a 'better' way to do things and this is the best place to find that out.

So, on to the build, and please, give me some ideas and suggestions. Oh, I intend to run this plane with an OS 1.20 AX. I have one on my Excelleron 90 and love it. Which reminds me.. any suggestions on motor mounts for this engine/plane combination? I am using the standard flex mount that came with the Excelleron and it seems to work fine. Just wondering what you folks may have in mind for engine mounting.

DS.