I'm not sure if I have the "exact" same plane because there seem to be several of the same size out there. That being said, mine came with retracts but you might want to be sure of that. The retracts I had were sloppy with lots of play and broke off at the mounting flanges on the first landing. I replaced them with Hobbico (metal trunions and set screws to remove the slop) retracts and haven't had a problem since. I put an OS .46FX on it and it flies great. It needed a substantial amount of weight in the nose (can't remember how much) to balance properly and I had to put 3 washers behind the upper motor mount for down thrust (which also necessitated slightly longer engine mount bolts). Perhaps using a .61 engine would reduce the amount of ballast needed - the plane would probably be a super performer with a bigger engine. You should beef up the landing gear blocks in the wings with triangle stock and epoxy and use bolts with blind nuts or screws long enough to go all the way through the mounting rails.