Great Planes: Fundango
Going from memory, I think finding a 3.3:1 gearbox was difficult, so I settled on the 3:1 gear box and that works fine with the APC 10X7 slo-fly prop. The speed 400 motors put out enough punch, but at full throttle, the motor is at 11 amps so I'm on my second motor; the first seemed to have lost its power after 30 flights or so. I spend the $8 and bought a new motor and that brought new life to it. I'm sure if you went cobalt or brushless you'd get not only longer run times, but also increased motor life.
The landing gear come in handy if you fly from tarmac. I fly from grass, so I skipped the gear and I do think it flies a bit faster. The gear *does* help with orientation, particularly when coming out of a roll. On low rate, it rolls pretty fast. ON high rate, I'd guess it rolls 720 degrees / second.
Spars, it's early so my brain is still cold. Do you mean as a way to support the vertical stabilizer? If so, than yes, I'd agree here it's a weak spot. I didn't add spars, just added a piece of balsa at the point of intersection of the horizontal and vertical stabilizers. As long as you don't bang it into something, which I've done, it'll hold great in flight.
Don't use monokote..go with Oracover. I think Hobby Lobby stocks it. It's lighter and easier to work with, so it'll decrease wing warpage.
I sorta fly the thing like a sissy, probably because I killed my Fundango twice in the last 2 years. The first time I was doing rolls...I did three in a row, than I stalled it. It went into a dive and plowed into the ground nose first. 8 hours of repair work and it was back in the air. About a year ago I was flying inverted and lost orientation. I was smart enough to kill the power before impact, but it was destroyed. It sat on a shelf for 6-9 months. I full repaired it during the winter, so it's back in action.
It picks up speed pretty fast and is easily thrown around in the air.
I read on a forum that someone said that they liked the Radio Shack 1400 nimh battery pack. Well, if they do, they would love the cheap packs I have as the Radio Shack packs provide little to no punch and add too much weight.
The total weight with batteries installed is ~ 18 ounces. The Radio Shack pack adds two ounces and is very noticeable in flight; it's not as nimble and the roll rate suffers. That said, do what you can to keep the weight down.
Here's the post crash picture