I'm flying #4 now and trust me, it needs the gear mounts beefed up. They havent changed a thing, in fact you still get some that have little or no glue down there, my last one broke even though I DID add tri stock & a hard wood block between the formers because it had NO GLUE to hold the gear mount ply down. If that is weak, even the mods dont help much. The only thing Great Planes has changed that used to be a MAJOR problem is the stab, there is harder wood in the stab center, the first bunch were breaking off due to saft balsa. You can get tri stock in the corners of the formers without removing anything, its not easy but I use medium CA and cover my finger tips with a small plastic bag so I dont bond my finger to the plane. Then I add a hard wood block that fits snug between the formers, I push it down as far as it will go, in contact with the tri stock that joins the sides with the gear block. Then I drill a pilot hole thru the gear base and ply mount, then continue into the added hardwood block. I then use a long(about 2" ) wood screw that goes thru the gear base,plywood gear block and into the hardwood block I added inside. This wood screw is in the center of the gear base, between the 2 machine screws that are supplied with the kit.