Pictures and video coming soon, but initial results with the fully covered model were not positive.
Just too much weight I think.
It made it off the ground a couple feet hanging by the propeller - which looked like a cool 3D maneuver but I think ate battery voltage quick. Once voltage dipped after a few moments, she came back down a little hard. I pushed my luck for one more takeoff, and it came back down a little bit harder. Not a great idea.
Since I fixed the previous problem of having propellers fly off by melting the prop hub onto the motor shaft, the prop stayed firmly in place when it hit the floor this time. Instead, the motor came flying out of the mounting bracket. Overall, I think this was a good thing - no damage to the motor bracket or airframe or prop. However, I didn't have nearly enough slack in the wire and it ripped the positive connection right out of the motor. Luckily the motors are only $3 each, and I have a spare
So my next steps are to replace the motor, remove the covering from the bottom of the wings, and start cutting out some balsa to reduce weight as well. I have a little digital scale on order, and once it arrives I'll start measuring the gram-by-gram dieting progress to see what it takes to get her back to performing well. Cause I'm not giving up on the new good looks.