Forgive me but I do tend to overdo things when it comes to Motors and ESCs. The motor I chose was rather overpowered but personally I prefer a motor which can fly at almost idle or at very low revs. Rather than have an underpowered on screaming all the time. I have listened to my motor during flight and it is much quieter than the identical plane with a smaller motor in it. The motor I used is from Hobbyking NTM Prop Drive Series 35-30 1100kv / 380w. You could also use the NTM Prop Drive Series 28-30A 750kv / 140w . I like this series of motors due to their smooth and quiet running and the price is very good. Be sure to get the accessories pack with these motors. They are only a few dollars but give you the ability to take the drive from either end of the motor and also gives you the motor mount and prop adapter.

The ESC is the TURNIGY TRUST 45A SBEC Brushless Speed Controller. There is no worry about burning this one out.. Almost any radio equipment can be used, you only need 4 channels. The prop is a standard 10/5. I always balance mine as well as possible. I have the Extreme accuracy Prop/Rotor balancer and it works extremely well. Always sand the rear of the prop to balance it, never the front. I also make sure the leading edge is clean and free from any dents.

For servos I used to use the popular blue HXT-900s but have changed to the HKSCM9-5 Single Chip Digital Servo (5V) 10g / 1.4kg / 0.09s. I find it smoother and quieter. I have never had one fail or arrive dead and they are cheaper that the 900. You only need 3 of them.

The rest of the hardware is as Mikey uses. I liked fitting all the parts to the plane as there is plenty of room and a little velcro is handy to stick things down or to the vertical center of the plane. You will need to make of buy some servo lead extensions as it's a long way from the servos to the receiver. I will be cutting a shallow slit in the under surface of the upper wing to hide the wiring. I also use a filament tape (a packing tape which has fiberglass along it's length) Putting this on the wing's leading edges save knocking a piece of foam off the surface plus strengthens it considerable. Even a strip across the center, top and bottom of each wing will stop any movement and again strengthen the wings..

One thing we did discover and found it to be excellent was to cover the wings in ordinary brown paper. The glue we use is called Aquadhere in Australia. It's a milky glue used for glueing wood. We water it down about 8 parts water and 1 part glue. Anything similar is OK as long as it's thin, no lumps and foam safe. We paint that on the foam and then lay the brown paper over it. Then apply a coat of glue to the top side. When it's dry simply trim the excess off and you are left with a wing which won't snap. It's almost as strong as wood and extremely light. On the complete plane this added 200 grammes to the weight. It's an excellent surface to paint (the red plane has been built this way.  Try a small piece and when it's completely dry try bending the foam with the paper covered side outside and you'll find you can completely bend the foam in half. We pushed all we could but it wouldn't break. The only down side is that it's a long job and best done before fitting any servos or horns etc. Also avoid covering any surface which has to be glued to other pieces of foam.

We have tried to use all types of glue. One of the group uses nothing but hot glue, another uses UHU and I use Gorilla Glue. None of our planes have every lost any parts so they are all good. One of the planes hit a tree at full speed and another hit a power pole, neither of them even chipped the foam. It just gave each a slightly bent down nose. This was easily fixed with boiling water.

My plane has now been flown and landed by one of the group about 15 times and there isn't as much as a mark anywhere on it and I haven't even put any tape on it yet. Except some coloured tape on two ailerons and underneath the storage box.

Version 8 has just begun to be built and the storage area will be filled in and a door placed underneath and on the front sponson for access. Every time one is built something is changed to make it better.

Mine will be fitted with the Eagle tree system, the Co-Pilot system and the Camera with 900MHZ 1.5 watts output video transmitter. One battery for flying a 3s 2200mah for flying and a 4s 5000mah to power all the addons. I have a camera mounted on a pan and tilt system but I'm leaving that off and fitting a full size JVC Full High Definition camera. The combined total weight should be around 2.4 KG. Lucky I fitted extra power :-)

If there is anything you would like to know please ask.
Have fun building this plane. It's one of a few which is actually useful. Great as a trainer with no need for a buddy system and great as A video platform. For fun we are going to try some formation flying if I can get to the field in my chair. 5 of these planes all flying together would look great if we can get all the pilots in the same place.

I really hope a few of you build this plane. It may look hard tobuild biut I assure you if I can build it anyone can. Just one thing regarding it's flying. As it is, absolutely empty, unpainted or taped with no video or other equipment on board it can be caught by the wind. It certainly isn't for flying in on a windy day. Dressed up or with accessories fitted it really sits down and laughs at the wind. The plane is designed to cary a lot of weight in fact I intend trying to carry a few extra batteries and see how she handles the extra weight. There is no problem at all with C of G as the tunnel underneath will carry a lot and it's a simple matter to just slide the batteries or items along the tunnel until you have balance. One thing I must add is make sure the tunnel is well secured to the underside of the bottom wing. Don't just glue it but use heavy packing tape or other means to anchor it. You don't want to seem your video equipment and batteries heading for the ground before the plane does. Even if you intend to use it as a trainer I'd be inclined to add extra weight to combat the wind. Experiment, That's what this hobby is all about.

Your friends won't believe you when you bring your plane in for landing. Cut the motorat about 50 feet, put on full ailerons and the lane will virtually drop straight at your feet. This way you need about 1 meter to land. The standard, under power landing needs about 3 meters. Grass is best. the longer the better but rememer to run tape along the bottom of the tunnel because that's what it lands on. Unless you intend landing inverted at high speed you should never break a prop but I do advise you don't use a cheap bendy type prop. You not only lose thrust at high revs but you could lose small pieces of foam where the prop hits.

Everything required except for the home made push rod connections was purchased from HobbyKing.

Very happy building and flying  Best wishes   Stuart