My yak wit a 3w 75 comes in at something like 20# 2.4 oz! No wheel pants, no spinner bottom of the canopy is cut out, single servo on the rudder, one receiver/battery(nimh), all the extensions are cut to length so there is no extra wire,lite fly wheels, cf pushrods.
I can't think of any where else to lose weight without doing the single servo mod maudib posted.
There must be a huge weight range from one plane to the next.There's no way I could even come close to 17#. When I had the da-50 on there I think it was still almost 19#.
Even with the extra weight, it still handles it well. Feels pretty light on the wing considering.
I think I may have made it a little lighter today,though.I drug a wing tip and it spun into the cornfield. The cowls pretty beat up and there's a gaping hole in the wing where a corn stalk impaled it.[&o]
All in all, it faired pretty well. The landing was a little faster than usual.( I can't get that 3w to low-idle reliably yet)
Tough airplane though. A lot of planes wouldnt have faired that well.