HeliHead,
It is a JR (I had forgotten and now it's wrapped in padding), thanks for confirming that I guessed correctly.

faldoc,
Thanks for the reinforcement on the right way. I have spent many hours on the G2 sim and feel comfortable with hovering, rock solid, from all angles. Circuits aren't too pretty though, I still need work on those. I'm currently in the process of setting up a meeting with a veteran for my first flight. I've used Loctite on all my screws and will continue to check them all prior to each time out.

Question:
After setting the pitch (gauge makes it easy), I came out with a curve of ~ 12%, 20%, 30% corresponding to -2, +5, +11 for my normal setting. How do I adjust to get a larger percentage range ? In order to get that I had to set my pitch AFR to -40% (ail & elev. are both +50%). Shouldn't pitch AFR always be -50% for the Venture ? Should I even mess with the individual end points ? How else so I get the pitch curve to cover a larger percentage range ? As you might guess, the servo arms are not centered at mid-stick. BTW, if this is a stupid question that is better left to someone else to do a hands-on initial setup for me, let me know and I'll quit asking.
Thanks.