Hey johntammi,

I've been flying an Alpha 40 for almost a year now. #64 rubberbands will work fine, I think your strategy of placement will work fine too. The default glow plug for the Evolution engine is the super plug, but I've run mine with an OS #8, and it works just fine too.

One thing I have to ask, did you get the RTF version of this plane. If so, then you know that they say to use tape to put the wing halves together. I flew it like this several times and everything was OK; however, I recommend that you epoxy the wing halves together eventually (sooner rather than later), because it is a known weak point with the plane design. Eventually glow fuel residue will attack the tape, and make it worthless.