I just flung my rebuilt Comet Gull into the air, having rebuilt it after it spent several years in pieces under my workbench. It now has a LiPo battery in there (and 1/2 oz of brass in the nose) instead of NiMH. Everything went nice, except the Peck Polymers "Domestic tissue" that I bought from the LHS was a huge disappointment -- it just wouldn't shrink. I've since found out that the domestic tissue that Easy Built carries is nicer -- but Esaki is still the best.
All-up weight is 5.5 oz -- not bad, for a plane that weighed around 8oz on NiMH batteries.
It definitely needs more dihedral -- I reduced it from the kit, and it tends to slide into turns. I can fly it, but you have to be on top of it with opposite rudder, or you get a "death spiral". Since one of the things I want to do is let my 12 year old kid fly it, I may need to fix that (I _hate_ ripping into wings).
(I did this on my Shershaw "Cadet", too -- and I need to rip into it's wing, too).
With a GWS IPS-B gearbox and motor, and a 9 x 4.7 prop, it climbs _really slow_, but it does fly. I need to measure current, to see if I can get away with a more aggressive prop. The death spiral helps absolutely not at all, nor does the fact that it's got a mile-long tail, which demands lots of elevator on turns (no surprise here).
I still need to put cabin windows on it. That should improve both the tendency toward the "death spiral" and reduce drag somewhat -- hopefully that'll fix things enough that it'll fly hands off. If not, the next step is to (sob!) hack out the wing center section and re-do the dihedral brace. I'd _really_ like something that flies more like an assisted free flight model than an RC plane that needs constant attention.
Lessons learned:
1: Domestic tissue is crap these days. But Esaki tissue is still good. 2: Ain't LiPos light? 3: Stop reducing dihedral on free-flight designs so much!!! 4: Brushed motors are still wimpy. 5: Pay attention to nose moment, if you can.