Yea Chuck i fly without the cowl, was to much trouble and it flys great minus the 3 extra oz of nose wt.
i had a saito 100 in it before and it was ok but the 125 was made for it, (and a lot of others).
i like you had problems with flooding, i used a cline regulator to solve it, but now i just mounted my 125 horizontal and the carb lines up with the middle of the tank perfect
the only advise i can give you for what your doing is to fuel and fly, dont fuel till your ready to fly and you will be ok. it will lean a little when you go inverted but mine did ok when i did it