I, too am a little confused as to why remcl's plane came out so heavy. I got curious about what mine weighs (I have the Creek Staudacher - pretty much the same plane) so I just put in on the scales. Mine comes out at 11lbs, 12oz. My setup consists of an OS 1.60 with a Bisson Pitts style muffler, Hitec 625 single servo for elevator and Hitec 645 for rudder. Both are mounted in the fuse, just behind the wing tube. I will mention here that there was no mention of mounting the elevator servos in the fuse in my instructions, and no servo tray was supplied. This may be one of the differences between the planes. I am also using a MK bellcrank mounted under the stab for the elevators. I also added som tail bracing for my own peace of mind. I had trouble getting the stab glued in as good as I wanted and felt I needed some extra insurance. Tank is right behind firewall, 1600 6V pack is mounted on the engine box. I have replaced the supplied gear (I broke them with a hard landing) with some 1/4" aluminum ones left over from a Walt Moucha Marquart Charger. These are surely heavier than the supplied gear.

When I first built the model, I mounted the elevator servos in the tail, and the rudder servo in the fuse on a pull pull. With this setup, I had to add about 12oz of lead to the nose to balance it. Still, at this weight, it flew fine. Seemed to float forever on landing. Now, at 12 oz lighter, it flies really nice.

Could I have met the 11lb range? Possibly, with lighter electronics or a lighter engine. Am I unhappy because it came out heavier than advertised? No. (of course, mine didn't weigh 14 lbs, either)

I haven't seen any ARFs yet that would meet the advertised weight, unless you happen to get lucky with the wood in the model.