Jason,

It's not hard to balance at all. Just put your batteries in the nose area (forward of the nose gear) and be sure you use the updated cg location, which is 12 3/4" along the leading edge of the wing (not straight back along the fuselage). Surprisingly, this airplane flys better with the cg a little aft.

I am using nicads for both the rx and ecu. You could go with lighter batteries (like Duralites) but you would probably end up needing some lead in the tail.

Craig

PS: Nice looking airplane. You will love the way it flys!