manufacturer: Trick R/C span: 48 inches weight: 11 oz

My THL was modified by removing as much foam as I could from the back of the wing as I could. This meant that I could get away with as little nose weight as possible and end up with the lowest overall weight. As it turned out, it came in at 11 oz, just slightly below the manufacturers stated weight. This was partly due to the fact that I taped the elevons instead of just varnishing them. This made the elevons pretty tough and it took a lot of abuse, including a day at the park where I was practising hand launches and ended up teaching EVERY kid in the park how to fly the thing.

Unfortunately the one thing this model couldn't take was having a car door closed on it. The car door was closed so hard that it latched!! There's now a big crease in the wing about 3 inches in from the wingtip. This model has now been gutted for it's radio gear, which went into my Mini Laser. I'm sure it'll come out of retirement (the loft) one day and become a clipped wing zagi...........

Tips
I've just put this diagram up. The actual holes are larger than they look on the diagram so there's less of them in real life. The green hole is one you shouldn't cut. This was the only area where my THL started showing signs of cracking due to weakness.

In the picture below you can see the holes I cut out.

Pushrod construction
I replaced the metal pushrods with 2mm carbon rods. At one end a simple nylon clevis is pushed onto the carbon. On the other end I've got a pushrod-holder-thingy. They're available from most model shops but I can't remember what the name is. These make for easy adjustment and it's lighter than the stock setup.