I agree with Fuzz, the stock landing gear position seems too far back, at least for grass strips.

As to glide angle, the key is to retain airspeed. It's helpful, I think, to do some flying at very low idle to get used to the Hog's descent rate. We usually make a landing approach at a high idle and don't get familiar with its low speed handling.

If the engine dies you have to let the nose drop and yes, it's a steeper glide path. But at the right speed a decent glide to a flared landing isn't hard to do. It's easy, though, to keep the nose too high and mush the plane down too slowly which loses altitude quickly. I think this is the "glides like a brick" situation. Once the airspeed is lost, you're in trouble. Of course, your first reaction is to pull the stick back, making it worse. You'll either stall or mush on down and pancake onto the ground with no flare possible. Even if you think fast enough, you'll also lose a lot of height by dropping the nose to regain speed.

Believe me, I've pancaked in, smashing the landing gear flat!

In any case it's best to either be near the landing strip or stay higher. Flying low and far out is asking for trouble.