Jerry Bates Bearcat
Kirk, Checked out your thread and all I can say is that's a fine looking project . Jerry should use your thread as a builders manual! Hope you're back on it soon.
As for "Did I compare the two"? You bet. Ziroli's is truely more "scale" but my issue was 2 fold. First was: what made a plane with 6 inches of more wing span weigh 30+ pounds? I figure my project will be right around 16 pounds. I'm trying to "buy" and build light, but I'm not skimping on any of the goodies either... Smoke, lights, cockpit, 10 servos, 4 batteries, and of course the scale articulating gear. I'm a desent pilot, but a bird with a 86" wing at 33 pounds would be a handful for me. I'm not knocking Nick's birds. He's had several designs that have inspired me.
The other issue I had was that "this" Bearcat was going to have scale gear and if I had picked the Ziroli Bear, Century was the only company with this gear (at $900 I believe). Now I know some guys swear by CMJ gear but I wouldn't own a set. When I went searching for gear, Darryl at Sierra was working on the Cactus Bear and Gene Barton, who had built some for Tianno for the Bates Bear was up for the job. I think he said his current price is $500. Then a wood kit by Cornell Michaels, practically fell in my lap, so the decision was made.
I'd still like to do a bigger version. I'd like to do one in 1/4 scale. It would have a 96" wing, and I know it would come in around 30 pounds if I built it from scratch. The situation would be I'd have to machine the gear myself which I have a very complete set of prints for. I should build the gear first!
BTW... Where on God's Earth did you ever find a carbon fiber fuselage for a Red Box kit? I've been building Red Box Bearcat kits for 20 years and have never heard of it. Please tell me it did not come from Top-Flite!