I purchased an already built Ultra Stick 1.20 with the engine and no radio that had never been in the air. The US came with the H9's supplied linkages(the balsa rod) I put JR 2721 alloy servos all around except the throt. I use the quad flaps with a JR 8103 8 channel radio. I have flown the plane 12 times so far.
Lately I have been taking notice to many posts about reinforcement on many areas.

Since then I have
-Reinforced the landing gear mount
-Fiberglassed the wing joint
-put more epoxy on the vert and horizontal stabs. The vert stab already had a triangle on one side.

Im worried about the control linkages that are still in the plane, but im not sure if I want to move the servos more tward the tail for several reasons.
-I do not know how the procedure goes to mount the servos aft.
-I put a camera mount right behind the wing so I could put a small digi video camera on the plane. This adds more wieght aft.
-If i move the servos aft, then the plane will be more tail heavy. With the plane so tail heavy, would I have to add weight up front to balance it out and reinforce the fuse to carry that much weight?

The plane has a MDS 148 on the nose, and an 1800 NiCd Behind the Fuel tank. The ARF is the one with the lightening holes in the vert and horizontal stabs, along with the elevator and rudder.

The pic is of the Camera mount behind the wing without the cam in it.

If you are concerned with the stock control rods try a simple test. Lightly hold the elevator then the rudder while moving the sticks. Did you get much flexing in the control rod? If you decide to rear mount the servos at some point look at some of the Ultra Sport 60 threads. There are some great pictures in them that cover it. If they do flex badly then you might try something like the Dave Brown control rods or arrow shafts.

As for me, I did lightly reinforce the landing gear block and rear mount my servos - offset the weight of the G23 in the front. If the wing was assembled correctly I see no need to add glass to the center. This has not proven to be a weak spot on any of the 40 - 60 or 120 US that I have owned. I do however add cut glass to the epoxy when I assemble.

I did have a problem with the US 60 cracking just in front on the tail, could have been from landing too manny times too hard on the tail wheel. No problem with any of the stabs breaking or getting loose.

Ed M.

I also have another Q. If the servo linkages do bend quite a bit when I test them, and I decide to try and move them back. What would be a good place and how would I mount them?

Oh and one more thing, should I seal the hings gaps?

I mount the rudder servo just in front of the vert stab and either use linkage or pull/pull to hook to the rudder. I use lite ply cut to the width of the inside x about 1/2 inch on both ends of the servo for mounting. Glue in with thick CA or epoxy. Cut another small filler piece and glue in at the rear of the servo if you want that end raised a bit. Mount the elevator servo in the side(away from exhaust if possible) the same way. Just place it where you have the depth and it does not hit the rudder servo. Mounting heigth is determined by servo arm and linkage to be used.
I seal the hinge gaps on everything I fly. On some planes you can feel the difference.
Ed M.