Just between you and me (yeah, right) getting short-sheeted wasn't all that bad a thing, really. It's given you time to think things out a bit, which, in the end, is usually a pretty good thing.
Total agreement with "moments". Thrust is well taken care of with your firewall/nose set-up, rotational torque is the big thing and a "soft-start" on the ESC will keep that whittled down pretty well.
Yeah, it's true. Everything I've ever heard is that air-exit should be twice air-intake, so you won't need much intake at all. From what little tiny bit I understand about the electric set-ups, air for the battery & ESC is far more important than air for the motor, especially for the way you're going to be running the system. If you leave enough gap around the wheel (especially at the rear of the wheel - or so I've heard) you'll be OK. There will be a vacuum at the rear of the wheel, simply by virtue of the shape of the wheel - the gap behind it will simply put that vacuum to work.
... a 15 or 20 second launch under power... let her glide about for a bit... do some trim work... then after a minute or so do the second powerup for about the same time ...
Might be the required method on the Merlyn too.
Thoughts keep running round and round in my noggin - ways to get air IN and not mess up the beautiful lines of that front end. The one that sticks with me most is simple angled drill holes on the fuse sides in front of the battery & ESC, something like a 1/4" hole on each side, scalloped into the fuse. If you did it "square", I would think maybe 1/2" high on each side. Quick, lousy drawing below.
Wing sheeting, and what you've done, is GREAT! My Spirit-100 had the option of flat-bottom or "sport" wing - not much difference between the two except for control surfaces (spoilers & flaps) and caps on the wing bottom, in addition to the top. I went half-way in between, no spoilers/flaps but capped both sides - love it. Also, my years in CL tell me your wing's now got just a tiny bit more "body" - those extra caps will definitely make her slicker and, if she was a powered bird all the time she'd be more maneuverable too - you've not only eliminated the "flap" of the covering on the bottom rear of the wing, you've eliminated an edge in the covering that creates drag too.
Wheel/nose skid; many/most full-size gliders with fixed wheels show that most of the time the only bit of the wheel that's exposed to air is actually the tire itself. I shouldn't think anything more than that's really necessary. Placement under the wing LE is just about perfect too.
...ripping up the covering on the bottom front and have been thinking that some packing tape over the covering would be a good idea.
Yeah, been regretting that nose skid idea ever since I came up with it. Why not just wax the crap out of the nose bottom once in awhile? Taping of any kind is going to create drag on the edges of the tape, not look good (unless you're REALLY a whole lot better at that sort of thing than I am) and generally be a pain in the rump. Wax will hang onto any paint I've ever heard of, and I understand it can be used on MK too but have never tried it.
Also, this wheel should help a bit with less friction during a tug takeoff.
Most assuredly!!
Finally checked out the Merlyn's tail - should have done that before I said anything about extending the tail skid. Yeah, you're definitely OK on that. I was going with the BoT's lines, where the rudder actually continues extending down under the fuse and that's where my thinking went wrong.
Hehe, your shop tear-down's really getting to you - don't let it! All will work out just fine in the end. As is stated in Desiderata; "the universe will unfold as it should". Keep the faith, my friend. And besides, my 42 married years have always told me that if I screw up the house, all it usually takes is a nice night out with my wife (who really needs a medal for putting up with me this long) and all's well again (for awhile - until I screw up again - - - usually the very next day).
((oh, the stories I could tell about that))
Your airstrip! Geez man, that thing's not much short of a full-size airport. Even I could land a plane in that amount of space!!!! I've got my Butterfly on the table (see? house is a repair shop AGAIN - and she's not yelling too much, yet) right now with a damaged wing. Idiot me, trying to set up final landing approach and after 10 years of flying at that field - - I flew her right into the far tree line (maybe 25 deep line with an open field on the other side) from the far side. Couldn't believe it! Got her down easy enough but have a bit of stringer repair to do and re-monokoting. Sheesh!
XC - something to think about, maybe, for next year ... after you know what the bird can really do and how she acts.
Telemetry - I know absolutely nothing about it, but sure wish sometimes I had an altimeter available on my birds, if only for curiosity's sake. I'm in the same boat as you, only way I can tell if she's going up is when it visibly gets smaller. And now that I'm 60++, that's even harder (hence, running into the trees).
Hey, did you know that to a tree, balsa tastes just like chicken?