I have about 40 flights on mine. I did take half of the dihedral out and converted it to a taildragger. With half of the dihedral out, it is still a very gentle flying, easy going airplane. It will float the entire length of our 600" runway if I let it. The only difference I can see if you keep the dihedral in the stock format is that you will have to work a little extra to maintain decent inverted flight. In the stock format, it will just be more inclined to self right itself. I also think mine rolls a bit smoother. I have an O.S. Max .46 FX in mine and it has plenty of power, I am at half throttle most of the time. I purchased my Falcon for the same reason you are looking at it. I have other aircraft to rip open the sky with, so the Falcon is the one I use to cruise the pattern and do lazy rolls and loops.
The one thing I did not like was the flimsy 2mm spaghetti rods the provided for the pushrods. I did replace those with better quality stuff. I also left off the canopy, it looks different from the original Sr. Falcon so it didn't sit well with me. All in all I am very pleased with mine and I plan to put many more flights on it.
By the way, I noticed your comment about the Sr. Falcon was not thought of as a trainer. Thats what I learned to fly on one back in 1972 with an E.K Logitrol radio. The ARF, in my opinion is an excellent trainer and I would recommend it over a lot of the other "trainers" on the market.