So everyone, unfortunately I received an email from my contact at world models.
” The production would be completed and ready to ship by early March. It is longer than expected as our factory will be closed for three weeks starting from early February for the Chinese New Year holidays. Also, the carbon tubes (fuselage) will take about 20 days to order from our supplier and we need some time to work on the tubes when we get them. “
This means I am going to have to push the shipping date back to around March 15th – 22nd after a 2-3 weeks for shipping from china. Sorry everyone! I was hopping this would not happen but manufacturing delays for new products seems to be unavoidable.
The good news is the production sample is going together very well. The foam parts are perfect and the fit is very good. I am fitting a new motor from Foxtechfpv which can take 6 cell lipos and spin a 12 x 8 prop. I also have some new lipos on order.
The new wings are together and they are 12 oz lighter than the wings of the prototype. That means the production units will be about 1lbs lighter than the prototype, as predicted. With the new lipos and motor the numbers point to about a 3 hr 20 min flight I have been taking lots of pictures and will be posting a build blog after the lipos come in and it is fully assembled.
Thanks everyone for you support and patiance
Wayne
Hobbyuav 
have you tried installing ardupilot and hero/gopro HD cam ? what would be the expected change in flight time with those parts ?
I am installing APM2.5 in the production sample. along with a hackhd as a matter of fact. It will be interesting to see the effects of the autopilot on efficiency. It could be worse of the AP it too active or moves servos constantly.
I would think a more relaxed PID tune may be better then supper tight and hyperactive.
Wayne
Wayne, could you compile and post the current production version (expected) specifications some place?
DougW, the specs are on the home page. http://www.hobbyuav.com
OK, I assumed that the homepage specs were no longer current as you mention a 3 hr 20 min flight time in your blog post but the home page says 1-2 hours. Are the weights on the home page correct for the production version?
Yes the wights are correct. All though for a 3.4 hour flight the weight is closer to 6 lbs.