Thanks Bill, will try to answer your questions as best I can.
I'm not real sure what brand the carbon 3 blade prop is, I purchased 3 of the silly things from Modusa when they were selling Stalkers. It's very possibly a Kaz Minato prop as it looks just like a couple others I've seen from him. I just stuck it on the 62 one day to see what it would do and it worked. I don't have his prop list but if he is selling a 3 blade CF 13-5.5 for the Stalker 61 I would almost bet it's the same prop.
Actually I didn't just stick it on.. First I repitched one to 6.5 thinking a 5.5 pitch couldn't possibly work and tried it, at this pitch it was too much load for the 62 and the poor thing wouldn't rev over 8100 wide open. I then went down to 6 pitch, it was flyable but still quite a load on the engine. Finally I just stuck on a stock one, adjusted the intake for 8300 and it worked.
When I say effective pitch I'm going by what the lap times are for a given RPM using a Rev-Up 7 pitch prop as a reference. I only had to increase the engine RPM by about 100 to get the same lap times I was with a Rev-Up. If it was a real 5.5 pitch prop I would have thought the difference would be more like 4-500.
Another example is the Evolution 11-7, it actually measures a 7 on my pitch gauge as does a Rev-Up 11-7.5 but I have to increase the engine RPM by about 200 with the Evo prop in order to get the same lap time as the Rev-Up. I don't claim to fully understand why, I just try things till something works. Maybe someone that really understands prop efficiency can enlighten us.
Yes the conventionally plumbed tank is responsible for the speed up but it also gives the most consistant runs. A conventional tank gives up it's fuel load much easier than a uniflow tank and 4 strokes need all the help with fuel delivery they can get. Some have said they can make a uniflow tank work but I have not been able to without experiencing inconsistent run issues that were much worse than a slight speed up during the flight. It's a compromise I am willing to make considering the alternatives.
When I had the Saito 30 on the TwistMaster I was bound and determined to make a hard uniflow tank work. I built 4 different uniflow tanks during this ordeal and tried every configuration I could think of including two versions of chicken hoppers. Finally I stuck on a plastic clunk tank with one vent in the top inside corner and haven't looked back.
One configuration I haven't tried is one I received from Martin Quartim along with the Rogue venturi info. It sure looks like it would be worth trying, I just haven't gotten around to it...