Shane,

You might be able to add a nose gear retract but I wouldn't mess with the wings without adding some reinforcements. The bottom of the fuselage between the cheater holes can be reinforced with flat carbon fiber rods. However, I caution you that hand-launching this model may prove to be difficult due to the wing loading.

My plan is to maiden the Hawk off pavement on August 1st at an event in Hamburg, NY, just South of Buffalo. Once the plane has some flights on it for my review, I'll try it off grass.