Will the change over from foam tires to rubber make the plan more "bouncy" on landings or will the retracts absorb enough or maybe an adjustment in air pressure in the wheels help with all that?
I actually anticipate it making landing a bit smoother. The foam wheels are very light, but also very firm. The foam wheels themselves have almost no shock absorption and pretty much transfer all of the landing loads to the struts. The inflatable tires will have more give to them and will soak up some of that energy. I did non-scientific side by side bench test dropping both wheels side by side and the bounce for the foam was a bit more than the rubber. I'll redo the test once I tweak the psi, but in any case the convenience and durability of the rubber is the real reason.
As for the timeline... I looks like a lot but honestly it isn't THAT bad. I figure a few hours of work for the reinforcements, 2-3 evenings to do the repaint on the fuse, another evening to reprogram the BEC for 9v and make up a wiring run to the Robart controller, and an evening or two to deal with the new spinner and prop. I may shoot a video on "scale" prop detailing and balancing but that is only if time allows.
Strapping the pilot back in and re-programming is probably just one more evening, and then another evening to put her on the Vanessa rig and re-balance. I'd like to get another flight or two on her before FF to validate the new prop setup and to record some data for setting airspeed alarms. After that its time to fly the pants off of her