BMatthews

I'd be more inclined to try to hold the weight to no more than 8 to 9 oz. It'll fly at 10 but I truly feel that for that size it'll be well into the heavier allowable wing loadings. If it was a 30 inch model I'd say sure, and maybe even 12. But that old scaling thing bites harder and quicker as the size shrinks.

I like the lineup Jess gave you a few posts above if you're going RC. That motor and battery option would go a long way to keeping this project a winner. I'd just add that for a foolproof and lightweight Rx you can't really beat the Berg Light caseless version at 4 grams and around $40. The only icing on the cake would be to go with 3.6 gm servos instead of the 5 gram'ers. But for that price if they work decently you can't go wrong and 3 extra grams total won't make or break this project.

And as mentioned above stick to 3 channels with the free flight dihedral choice shown on the plans.

As for the suggested wood switching it's all about bang for the buck. Bass or spruce will provide a LOT of extra strength for only a couple of added grams vs the balsa. In fact knowing some of the Guillows wood you may not suffer any penalty but you'll get a stronger model.

One way to save some weight would be to Dremel rotozip cut some of the inside wood on the bulkheads away. Then to harden what is left you can just run a small bit of wetness of thin CA over the inside and outside edges that have the short grained segments to harden them back up. It would also give you more room for the pushrods and stuff to run through if you switch to RC use. We aren't being condratictory on this but rather trying to suggest adding where needed and taking away where not.