I'd have to agree, 18.5 is gonna be tough on sportsman with the upline rolls. Basic should work. Maybe also switch to a 23x8 prop. Jake would know well. He has one with a Berrelli 60 (I think that's the size) on his and it struggles in Sportsman but it does do it. Energy managment is gonna be the key at that weight. Be at full power before pulling a line going vertical or at 45 degrees

You could probably drop 1/2 pound by going to a set of smaller batteries or just going to one would net you more even weight loss. You really do not need two in there for the flight system. A single A123 at 2300 would give you roughly 8 - 10 flights, probably around 6 to 8 if you are hammering on the plane pretty good but you can recharge them in 15 minutes or less depending on the charger and you may eve nget more than 10 flights but I would not push it, it all depends on flying style and the servos being used.

The JetBlack batteries run around 6 or 7 ounces for a 2300MaH versus the almost 10 ounces for your current ones. I use 2 in my 35% Comp-Arf 260 and after 5 flights I've only used at most 580MaH on the one with the rudder and around 450 without the rudder (2 A123 2300 batteries, 2 recievers, rudder on one receiver, throttle on the other, plane is split down the middle otherwise)

The ignition also has a A123 2300 on it and I get around 15 flights and use around 1200MaH. It's a DA100

All but one battery is up in the nose. The other is right over the wing tube

So staying with two batteries:

yours are roughly 10 ouunce each so that's 20 ounces
Jet black at 7 ounces is 14 ounces

Save 6 ounces

Now remove one of yours and lose 10 ounces, remove one of the Jetblack and save the original 3 from the difference between yours and the jetblack plus the jetblack itself so you are still at 1o ounces.

If you need the second one for the smoke pump, you may be able to use a Li-Poly for the smoke pump if it can take it, that alone is a huge savings. I seem to remember a typical 2100 Li-Poly being around 4 or 5 ounces for the 11.1 volts version, less for the 7.4 volt version. If the smoke systems is a sullivan then you can use either voltage of LI-Po though it preferes the 11.1