hey rick, im sry about your brother in laws plane. Im looking at the pics and it seems like it was starting to burn on the other nacelle also... maybe that 3 blade prop was pulling way more amps then he thought it was....not enough safety margin on his esc? The eflite 480's are a little pricey.....i can take the scorpion 35a esc from my trojan and buy a second one....trying to get the best bang for the buck for around $100.00....this plane seems to be an "inbetweener"....needs something between a 480 and the next range of electric motors... I havent really weighed it yet as its not really put together....some have said it is every bit 4lbs and some say about 3.5.....2 motors with a combined 500w should be about right...ill probably need to look at all the specs for watts and amps for each one considered...the right size esc's and batteries in that order.Some people live by the 20% rule also....they plan system around performance difference of actual and stated by manufacturers which the general consensus seems to put it in the 20% range on average. This coming from lots of people with many years of flying and building....might be looking closer to $135.00-$150.00 before im done!