Snit,
i missed your post till just now. thanks for the tip on the foam cylinders, i actually tried some fake plant potting foam for the 2nd try on building the channel. i sanded it all down as much as possible while still keeping the airfoil shape, it would work for AA gear but i was originally going to use it for the aero soarer gear and the foam just weighed too much (almost 2 grams - doesnt sound like much, but 2 grams should be close to the AUW for an LRF).

neurotex, have you tried sanding the foam plates? most of the weight of the thin foam materials are all in the outer skin. this is usually because of the cutting done with a hotwire cutter, it melts the foam and compacts it, making it heavy. using some heavy grit paper to remove the skin and then some light grit paper to smooth it out would probably drop your weight quite a bit, although the streangth in the foam will drop as well.

maiden-crash, you should be able to get at least 10+ charges on a set of TX batteries. i noticed your RIP to your planes, and i just gotta ask, how did you kill the stryker? i've gone through 2 airframes so far, over the past 3 or 4 years. the first one was mostly 2 part epoxy by the time i was done with it

i'm moving out of my house tomarrow so all my projects are on hold indefinetely - a serious pain in the butt, especially with the channel wing idea, i'd really like to get that one finished (having to move out happened rather quickly and unexpectedly). i'll hopefully get to start back up soon. this also means i wont be able to finish up the mod thread links, but i'll get back to it as soon as possible, there's still lots of good mods and planes between page 100 and 143!

nick