I have over 50 maybe 60 flights with mine on the hangar 9 extra 260 27% airplane. Performance was right on par, and so was the weight - actually the plane was lighter with the XYZ 50.... ok I was saying - performance is right on par with the saito 220 I removed from the plane - and fuel - instead of buying 65 bucks worth of fuel for 3 gallons - it's more like 11 bucks right now (which is still nutz for gas but I think we're permanently screwed on that matter).

It's nice not messing with glow drivers, their associated wiring for remote glow, holes in the plane, etc.. It's also nice to be able to easily flip start the engine.

the power is not anywhere near what a DL-50 is, or DA-50, or 3mm 53, but the price is quite a bit cheaper. the case isn't polished it's not cast - it's machined. the nuts and bolts it comes with you might as well try to ignore - and go to a good hardware store and get some hardware. My muffler came loose - but on initial installation I didn't do anything to help it - I just bolted it on with the locking type nuts. when I re-installed it I got longer bolts and drilled holes in the end of them and safety wired them together so now they ain't coming loose and the nuts can't back out.

I switched from break in oil to amsoil 100:1 synthetic mixed at 50:1. runs great, and reduced junk comes out of the tail pipe.

When I bought it a DL was a $400 dollar hit - now they're cheaper a little, but still almost double this XYZ-50. so if price is a concern and you don't need that extra power then I'd say go for it. just remember to filter fuel coming out of your jug with a paper element type filter - I made the mistake of having only an inline filter on the plane and fine particles of junk got past that and clogged the carb's internal filter screen - that was a pain in the butt for 2 days - but not the engines fault.

I tried a 22x8 pro-zinger and a 6-10x20 zinger dual pitch prop. I think it flys in most respects much better on the 6-10x20. better vertical, and better straight speed - but those props are kinda ugly.