Jim, yes the Saito FG-40 is a really big engine for this airplane. That is where all the nose weight comes from. But what fun!

Flight report: 5 flights yesterday. Landed upright 4 out of 5 times. I learned that you cannot set it down early, you have to wait on it, and wait on it. The airplane is not going to snap, it has a straight forward mushy stall, just wonderful. So I am balanced now at about 25% of wing cord. A very safe location. Engine wise the power is just perfect, I would not want any less or any more. We are running it very rich for now turning a Xoar 19 X 10 at 6,500 on the ground. In time I will lean it up and go over 7,000. This little airplane is deceptively easy to fly. In an effort to duplicate some of Delmar Benjamin's R-2 routine it will hold confident inverted passes without wandering. The low level knife edge is great, and at full power you can also do a slight knife edge climb which I saw Delmar do at Oshkosh one year. I went to altitude and tested the stall. At just above idle you could go to nearly full up and it would just mush forward and not fall off on a wing!!! It never really stalled for me. I have to explore this some more, because if I can really control this, then the GeeBee is a candidate for a low-level high alpha pass. Ha! Wouldn't that be a sight, a GeeBee crawling along with the nose up. What a hoot! We will see. Great little bird, lots of fun, it leaves smiles on your face on and off the field. Leo