It is one tough airplane. I have put it in the ground (not asphalt fortunately) three times from the top of the circle, once with the engine running, with no damage other than cracked landing gear spats. The wing is covered with Sig plyspan and nitrate dope. The fuselage is built-up rather than solid and the wing has a 1/16 web between the large top spar and 1/8 sq bottom spar.
It flys better than I expected it to. The leading edge is fairly sharp and it hunts a little. The CG is about 1/8 back of where I think it should be, but I havn't done anything about it. Airplanes do fly different at the VSC. First time I flew the Trixter, I flew it in on the bottom of the vertical 8. Once I corrected my style, I thought it flew as well or better than it flys in Austin.
I have gone to 8 x 4 prop rather than 9 x 4. The engine is noticably happier, but the level lap airspeed is not much, if any, different than with a 9 x 4. However the top of the vertical 8 and the overhead 8's are much solider, no loss of line tension. It's almost like the engine downshifts.
The engine starts and runs on the same compression and needle settings. I did have to lean the needle about 1/4 turn from the Austin setting for the VSC. Bill Lee tells me that all diesels should start and run on the same setting. Not all mine do. It may burp a few times during the level laps, warming up, I suppose, but is solid for the rest of the flight.
I'm flying it on the same 55' lines that I used for the Shark 15 and Jr. Flitestreak, both with TD 09. The Jr Flitestreak is too fast, 3.8 second laps. I havn't timed the Trixter, but it is not as fast as the Flitestreak, and flys at about the speed I like.
I've flown the twin Trixter a couple of times. It needs more fooling with to get the engines running right. I'm just going to have to spend more time with it.
Jim