One of my flying buddies has it, and he loves it! It was his 3rd plane, and had no problems building or flying it. It is also one of the most rugged planes I have ever seen. An equipment problem caused him to do a nose dive from about 20 feet. It did split the fire wall, and some of the fuse sheeting, but it did survive! A lesser plane would have been garbage. As for the retracts, I believe it could be done. The wing MIGHT be a little thin to fully enclose the gear, but it is a sport scale after all. It would also require a servo for each aileron, because the single servos aileron push rods might interfere with the retracting gear. So my advice would be go for it! Oh, and don't forget, the ARF version accepts retracts, so why couldn't the kit version be modified? Good luck, and post the results if you go through with it. David