I was at a local IMAC meet, and everyone was flying Venus II's with YS 140's and I started asking around if anyone knew of any good .40 or .50 sized pattern planes that I could place a Saito .82 in, because I wanted it to be the fourth engine I purchased. My first three were the Tower Hobbies .46 (don't waste your money), the .46AX and the .55AX. People laughed. They advised not to waste my money on a small pattern plane that wouldn't perform up to my dreams. I took it as pretty good advice, and went off. I was running basic (and I mean BASIC) numbers, and the Venus II with a YS didn't come out to be much cheaper than the Goldberg Obsession 3D with a DA-50 on it. So, I decided I'd save my piggy-bank for that. After looking at it, I decided I might as well look into other 2M pattern planes since the price difference would only be a couple hundred bucks (sounds more when I say it like that). It seems the DA-50 is extremely powerful and reliable, and gasoline is cheaper than glow fuel and sounds nicer...so I thought it'd be a nice engine to go big with.

Anyway, what I would like help with (from those kind enough to give it) would be a list of everything I'd need to run a pattern plane in the 12-15lb range with a DA-50. Hopefully do some basic 3D, because of the power/weight, but not extremely important. Please suggest reasonably priced ARF airframes (I don't have the space or time to build kit, though I'd love to) and battery packs, servos, etc to get it flying well. I think that this could easily become a sort of general "first 2m pattern plane" thread. Please include, also, when you think someone should jump from smaller models to the bigger sizes. I would like to send my thanks, in advance, to all those kind enough to help.