RE: the rational of trimming
Bryan, that Alferma looks to be more airplane than fish. I never wanted to build a pattern plane because they look so little like full scale planes and I'm a scale guy deep down inside, but that sucker looks decently "real".
By the way, real planes aren't bound to rules in practice. They're bound to what works in practice.
Remember..... in theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are often not.