It's been a learning thing for me. The trimming has been a challenge, until I took the time to really think about it. The problem with getting the wings level has multiple elements affecting, and wotking against each other.
I finally realized that with the adjustable leadouts, which are not only adjustable fore and aft, but also up and down, that I was chasing my tail unless I first got them adjusted vertically. This meant, as I finally figured out, that I needed to adjust the leadouts in the vertical plane, until the plane's attitude was the same upright, and inverted. In this case, I wound up with the plane banked in at the same angle, upright and inverted. Now, it was simply adding tip weight until the wings were level.
When I built the wings, I added 1/2 oz's, permanently mounted in each wings outboard tip. I figured to add any needed additional weight to the outboard strut, in line with the leadouts, to avoid altering the vertical CG.
Yeah, it sounds simple now, but it was nerve racking getting there.
Anyway, it now flies with the wings level, and if I don't honk on the last sq. turn does a reasonable corner. The corner should become much better with the new wings I'm building for the plane. I'll be increasing the wing area just short of 100 additional sq. inches. I also feel that I can lose 3-6 Oz's with the new wings, which won't hurt at all.
Since I last posted, I've removed the Stalker .61RE, and added a Stalker .81RE. I'm running a 14 X 6 classic Top FLight prop, but I may need a bit more pitch. I'm launching at 7800 RPM, and lap times are around 5.6-7 seconds. I've a different prop to try next outing, one of those Eastern Block wood scimitar blade style props, that really looks promising. The pitch gauge shows 5.9 mid blade, but it's going up as you move out towards the tip. An inch from the tip, it measured 6.75.
I'm going to try and get a 14 X 7 prop to try if I feel I need more pitch.
At the 7800 RPM, the big Stalker has a sweet run, breaking in all the right places, and I'd like to keep that.
I tried a 15 X 6 Scimitar wood prop of the same manufacture, but it loaded the engine to the point that it didn't want to run with a break.
Now, I find that with the bigger engine, I'm now nose heavy, to the point that it takes a bit to turn the plane, the loops want to open up as the consecutives are flown. The power off glide is not as good. I hate to have to add more weight, but it's going to be necessary.
I might, eventually, be able to mount the top wing a bit further forward which will move the balance point in the right direction without adding weight.
I'm certainly happy that the design allows for so many different optins with mounting wings and such.
I'll post more after a few more flights.