Well TedMo, I appreciate the advice and I know there are plenty of planes that are better than an old Das Ugly Stik; but this one was hand made by my father-in-law, 30 years ago, and has been just WAITING to fly all these years. It makes it a special kind of "mission" to get this plane in the air for me. Kind of a "quest" issue I know the dope + dope paint is going to add alot of weight. The 1st plane he gave me is a Senior Falcon, 1970's era. It's also a solid balsa construction with 10-12 coats of dope, paper, and dope paint on it. Granted, by buddy calls it "the Lead Sled" because it DOES weigh in pretty high! (between 9.5-10 lbs), but it's beautiful and VERY SOLID , but a Webra 10ccm (.61ci) w/ 11x8 pulls it through the air with NO problems at all. It's around 1.5x the weight of my Tower 60 (at 6 lbs) and 2x the weight of the little SkyBox Fly40 (at 5 lbs) I have. I'm not worried about the weight (right now it weighs 3 lbs; after the servos, engine, battery, fuel tank, wheels, and dope coats, I'm expecting it to weigh in around 9 lbs - that's REALLY not that heavy on a plane with such a wide chord and huge washouts); it may fly a little "dense", but its control surfaces have some "authority" to them to put it mildly >> the elevator and rudder on those Stiks are HUGE! and the ailerons are 2.5" wide each. It WILL fly, come hell-or-highwater, it's just going to take ALOT of work and ALOT of smelly goey dope.

I promised him when he gave it to me that it WOULD fly; given the fact that he GAVE me this beauty and he HAND CRAFTED IT straight from blueprints; cutting and shaping EVERY part of it (you should see the PERFECT shape of the wing! The washouts are PERFECT, it's solid as a rock, and even the Silron is still tight as a drum - literally!), it would be a crying shame, and almost disrespectful to him to "museum" this craft. It might take a little while to get it done, but it WILL fly

in the words of an airforce general when asked about the, then new, F4-Phantom, "The F4 is living proof, that if you strap enough engines to a brick, it too can fly"

Also, I'm flat broke, so ANY plane I get, I HAVE to fly! I, unfortunately, don't have the luxury of going out and buying even a cheap ARF, so free plane = FREE PLANE and that means FREE FLYING! My "hand made" planes may weigh a ton, but they're one of a kind, and they fly (or will fly), and I like them ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE more than my Tower 60 and the SkyBox Fly40 (or for that matter MANY ARF's I've seen; even the GP Big Stik). The hand made ones are more durable, more attractive, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, they were FREE