Thanks Tommy. From my own experience of flying the GB both with and without Robostruts, I didn't notice the extra weight of the struts. The Robostruts with my mod to the pants make the landing gear bullet proof. In my GB flight video, that hard touch and go, where you can hear the struts bottoming out, would have been a hard, wheel-pants shredding, nose-over had I done that with the stock setup. Since I haven't been able to grease my landings consistently with the GB, I like the peace of mind that bullet proof landing gear gives.

However, the more you lighten the GB the more reliable the stock gear becomes. I would say that the stock gear is "iffy" for a plane that is 11.5lbs. If you go the lightening route, you may be able to get by just fine with the stock gear. I thought about going that route myself, but knew that people fly Topflight 60 size P-47s at 12 and 13lbs and it has a comparable wing area to the GB. One way I thought of to lighten the GB is to build a lighter rudder out of sticks or foam or cut huge lightening holes in the stock and cover them with white monokote. I'll bet it's possible to halve the weight of the rudder. I've never weighed the rudder but I'm guessing that it weighs at least 4oz. Two ounces saved on the rudder would mean 8oz less weight needed in the nose.