Mode 1, your mods sound good. Are you shaping the rudder along the lines of the H9 Ultra Stick? I'm planning on splitting the elevator and reshaping the vertical feather on my SS60, but I'm told by the family accountant to leave it alone on the SS40 because it's "cute". She let my buy both planes so I'm not about to argue with her.

I agree about the fuse needing some beefing up near the tail feathers. Since I'm installing the rudder servo just in front of the vertical fin (driving the rudder pull-pull with solid 2-56 rods), I inserted a small plank of balsa vertically into each of 2 factory pull-pull wire exit holes and glue it to the two ply sections of the fuse side. This stiffened up the tail quite a bit. I also added some tri-stock to the base of the vertical fin.

I'm thinking about splitting the aileron like on the SS60. I can decide whether to leave it simple the way it is, or get the flexibility of added flaps.