I'll second what Randy said regarding the Intruder's flight characteristics. It's certainly much more then a good practice airplane. It's all in getting the airplane (any airplane) properly setup, which should and will take more than a couple visits to the field. This is certainly an area where it pays to "split hairs" to get it done right. It could mean the difference between an OK airplane and a great airplane that you really would miss if something should happen to it.

I was the modeler approached by W-M regarding the modifications SPA flyers were making to the airplane. I was merely a mouthpiece for all the guys, such as Randy, Sid and all that were flying the plane before me, to relate the majority of things they were doing to improve an already darn good airplane. When we first got into SPA (fall of 05) Randy and some of the others related to us what needed to be done to make the plane better, and we listened. One thing that was universal across the board though, was everybody adding tail weight to get the plane in trim. It was my brother John's idea to stretch the tail some to alleviate that problem, so he did on his plane, 7/8". And it worked well. I was second to get mine going after considerable trouble sourcing stabs, and after spending some time on the sticks of John's I settled on stretching mine 2-1/2", and I went to work to lighten the front of the airplane. Mine has no tailweight and flew right in trim with respect to CG right off. I showed WM exactly what I did and from what I can tell from talking with modelers who have the new bird, it appears they stretched it 2" and went about the lightening in a different (read safer for the knock-around flyer) way.....although mine took a good "thump" without breaking when a tree in Cullman jumped right in my way last season.

Point is whether the plane is scratch, kit or ARF built, don't give up on it until it's trimmed, otherwise you're cheating yourself and you'll never know how good the plane can be. One thing you must realize is if WM or any manufacturer for that matter states a CG that is "right on", and you miss rearward by a half inch, and your plane snaps in, you won't be the only one and then they have an epidemic and everybody says the plane is flawed, and nobody buys one. If they state it conservatively and you miss the mark by a 1/2" rearward, your plane flies great and you recommend it to others and buy another yourself. WM isn't concerned how many Intruders win contests, they just want flyers to enjoy them enough to buy another one.....and they'll leave the "hair splitting" to us.