Hi yellowred! You do have flying experience, hopefully some low wing tail dragger experience?? On the Stuka, I am flying mine with a Tower Hobbies 75 and it has tons of power so your Irvine 72 should be a good match. I never checked the thrust line on mine, just installed the engine and everything works well. On the throws, I read that the ailerons have very little authority if set up to match the manual. Most flyers are *****g out the aileron throws to get better response. I did that and have about 1 1/2" in both directions. Its a lot but the plane handles very well and turns as fast as a standard sport plane because ot it. The rolls are still slow but you can't have everything. I have flown mine inverted across the field with no problems. I am still getting used to mine so I have the flaps connected and have been leaving the flaps up. From other Stuka owners I read that the plane tends to nose over unless you bend the main landing gear forward a bit. I did this in a vise before I mounted the gear into the wing. I got about 1 1/8" forward bend and this mod seems to do the try because ground handlying is very good. Take off, throttle up and hold a little up elevator until the plane starts moving. Then you can ease off to center and watch the plane gain speeed. Now I don't know if its just my Stuka but my plane will gain speed quickly and suddenly lift off on its own in about 100 feet. The plane the plane is much faster than I expected and I tend to fly at under 1/2 throttle to keep the speed down. The wing shape is very distinctive but most owners have added something like yellow stripes to help see whats happening. I did this to help on cloudy days. Some things to note thats handy; the plane will self level very quickly if you let go of the sticks. This has helped me a few times when I let the plane get out a bit too far and wasn't sure what was happening. Another thing the plane has a big wing and is light. It can fly at trainer speeds with no worries. For landing I just cut the throttle, line up and land about the same speed as my original LT40, and thats without using the flaps. Don't forget to flair and the landings will look very cool! Overall its a very easy plane to takeoff, fly, and land, and its a nice size. I really like mine. I found out that the plane is easy to fly in the wind. The thin wings just slice right through it and I have made almost hover landings in very windy conditions. For interest a fellow Stuka emailed me some short videos of his Stuka during takeoff, and some landings, very nice! I can email them to you if you are interested. Any other Q, feel free.