lharvey,

Hay Buddie you do what you want. I don't need to be jumped on here either. But in all frankness your trying to learn to fly??? the last thing you need to do is put flaps into the mix while your trying to learn to fly.
Simply put!! if you have a trainer??? Understand the word trainer and realize the plane is designed to learn on if you go complicating it with rebuilds and such all you are doing is making it something other than what it's designed to be.
If it's a trainer then you can learn on it the way it's designed and you should. just get your self an instructor and go get with it. Trying to make it easier to fly will just hold you back. If you want to fly, at some point your just going to have to get yourself a hand full and go fly. and the sooner you stop trying to reinvent the wheel the sooner you will solo.

Regards and good luck.

Miloh.