RE: Peak Models 84" edge
JR,
Sorry it took me so long to get back to you, I've been pretty busy these last couple of days.
1) Quality: In general, I think the quality very good. Everything fit together very nicely and everything squared/paralleled up (stabs, vertical and horizontal, and wings). I like the aluminum wing tube after having a bad experience with a carbon fiber one. The horizontal stabs screw in to the fuse (with aluminum tube as well) and are solid and easily removeable if desired. The covering seems to be pretty good quality and was tight as a drum when I got it. After having it in the trailer for a few days, I can see some sags, but they should be easily removed with my heat gun. The canopy is a little thinner than I'd like, but will be fine. The canopy hatch is held down with a guilde dowel in front into the back of the engine area, four strong magnets, and a spring-loaded mechanism that attaches aft. I don't care for the quality of these. I broke one trying to get the canopy hatch secured and the other one is suspect. I removed them and rebuilt them so that they are much more solid and more reliable. If you get one, I'll explain in more detail what I did. As far as the wings go, I'm not sure if the quality of the balsa is poor quality or if I just handled them too roughly, but I cracked some of the balsa sheeting in several places and had to use some thin CA and a few pieces of square stock to shore up my broken pieces.
2) Structure appearance: They did LOTS of lightening to everything they could (via holes). It does make for a light model and has so far held up to the vibrations of the gas engine (on the ground, have not flown it but will try this weekend).
3) Finish: I covered this mostly in #1.
4) Firewall: I did use plenty of triangle stock wherever I could. This is my first gasser and I didn't want to take any chances. I think I did a pretty good job and would be happy to give you closeup shots of areas in particular if you like. I don't know if it was necessary as the whole firewall is built with interlocking connections, but I wanted overkill, if that's what you want to call it :-).
5) Weight: I have yet to weigh the model. I would be very surprised if it is more than 14.5 lbs. A guy over at flying giants built his with a DA50 and it came in at 14.2 lbs RTF dry. My "good" scale only goes to 12 lbs. The best I can do is use my bathroom scale but I'd be lucky to get within a pound of accuracy. When I get a chance, I'll go ahead and do that just for grins.
6) Weight reduction: I really don't think any is necessary as the factory already cut out tons of wood in their lightening effort. I don't have any lipos, I'm using two 2100mAh NiMH, one for the receiver and one for the ignition, both 4.8V. The ignition uses barely any power (see Copperhead Venom 45 forum) and performs flawlessly. I don't know of anyone using lipos but I'm sure there are some that are.
Let me know what else you need to know. I might not be too speedy getting you a response, but I'll do my best as time allows.
Thanks,
Gary
P.S. After I fly this, I'll give another update complete with flight report. That should help you make your decision if you haven't already.