You've done a nice job finishing it. Thanks for the pics.

I don't think the cut outs in the ribs would have made all that much difference. As I remember, what I actually liked about my BLT over my Slow Stick was that it did fly heavier. It had a much more solid feel to it in the air. When the wind was more than calm and under 10, the BLT would be the plane I took out.

I do admire all the work you're putting in to making your stick look good.

The long nose has to do with balancing the plane. WWI and 'Old Timer' planes have short noses because their engines were heavier and needed to be in closer to the CG. You could shorten the nose and move the battery back to adjust CG. A bit shouldn't change flight characteristics much. You'd have to ask someone else about what would happen if you mounted it on the pylon. That would eliminate breaking that part of the plane though, wouldn't it!

Anything you do to strengthen the nose will help, but by design, it's weak which is why I finally went to a solid stick just for the nose. It is not a forgiving design in that regard, and because of that, this plane taught me to pay attention, to always keep the plane in control, and to respect the atitude of the plane. It was a good lesson and taugh me the best defense was to land gently.

In one of the pics, it looks like there may be a a warp in your horizontal stab--is that just the angle of the camera?

Thanks again for the update!