Great Planes Stik 40

When my Spitfire met its demise and challenged by loyalty and dedication to r/c flight, a very nice gentleman was flying what I believe was a Eflite Ultra Stik 25e. I watched him fly it simply, gracefully, enjoying himself. I have forgotten what thats like since I lost my mojo. For a long time I have wanted to have a simple basic plane with no bad habits and some performance. I have been thinking about the Ultra Stick 40 or 60, but for some frickin' reason they discontinued it (I mean, come one, seriously? It had everything! Simpliticy, performance, stability, flaps...). Hobby King has a nice one, but it needs at least a 15 cc engine.  I love the performance of the Ugly Stik, but never was fond of the odd lines and the scalloped ailerons. Since I can't find a left over Ultra, I went ahead and bought the Great Planes Big Stik 40 with the plan to take everything from the Spitfire and use it on the Stik.

I so want to just build it like its designed... I don't want to modify anything, just build it, and fly the crap out of it. But I already am putting a 10cc gas engine on it. That changes the weight distribution and I am not sure it will fit without modification. And then I want to make it a tail dragger to fly off rougher runways, which means moving the back landing gear forward, which means getting some self setting nuts and strengthening the fuselage. This too changes weight distribution and flight dynamics. And if I do that, why not add flaps? Change the shape of the vertical stabilizer? And voila, a complex, long build...

I think I will build it stock and enjoy flying it, and then someday later modify it. I will change some of the colors though. She is notorious for being difficult to determine orientation on as the top and the bottom of the plane are the same. 

Fast, aerobatic, stable, predictable, gasser, easy to build, easy to fly, easy to repair.

Hmmm... maybe I will just make the tail dragger modification. And... maybe the vertical stabilizer.