jjmretired, that is a great looking triplane. Needs a pilot though.
As you said Hank "It must be nice to be retired and get to fly when you want." You are so right. I retired at 57 in 1999 when the company made me a great offer that I couldn't refuse. I then went back to work for them as a Process Control Consultant for about 3 years and then really retired.
There is very little information on gyro setup for airplanes. There was a pretty good write up in the Futaba GYA350 manual that is here.
http://manuals.hobbico.com/fut/gya350-manual.pdf Unfortunately Futaba discontinued the GYA350. It was in the same price range as the 401. In this manual it says to absolutely not use AVCS mode for takeoff. And I have read here and other places to use AVCS for takeoff. Hank I know that you takeoff with the AVCS (HH mode) off but have you ever made a takeoff with the AVCS (HH mode) on? How did it work?