I'll quote the questions so I can answer out of order, and possibly in separate messages. I need to create a FAQ from this one because I'm going to give you detailed answers.

>> what keeps the prop sitting at 9 and 3 when not running to keep from breaking the prop or bending the motor shaft on landing? <<

Luck. There is disagreement over this one, but I'll tell you what works for me. The main runway at the field where I fly mostly is reasonably smooth grass. Normally cut pretty close. When your plane is gliding at no throttle, the prop will be windmilling. It sounds bad but actually isn't. My first ESC had a brake on it. When you pull the throttle to idle, the shaft is stopped for 2 seconds. I was breaking a prop about every third flight, because the prop would sometimes be sticking down stopped. It's like a stake sticking down, and the plane would cartwheel. I had noticed that when I came in with it windmilling, as long as I kept the wings parallel to the ground there was no problem. Then one day as I was coming in, a little long actually, I saw the prop sticking down. Balls to the wall and missed approach without incident even though the battery was beginning to weaken. As I was going around, it hit me. Normally I glide all the way from a point downwind, through the base, and then final. On the missed landing, I thought I was a little short and added a little power. So the brake was engaged and the prop was not windmilling. Several times with a windmilling prop, I had noticed that just as the belly got right at the grass, the prop just kind of bounced off the grass and there was no problem. The biggest thing with a broken prop on landing is a broken plane. The Graupner and APC props are tuff enough that having one grab the ground will cause the plane to cartwheel, turn around, etc. I often found the broken off prop blade at the touchdown point, not near the final resting spot.

I finally had to retire a Graupner CAM prop after 15 or so flights because it was starting to deform a little. I'll take 15 over 3, 2, or 1 flight for $5 any day.

Asphalt works about the same way. If your grass is taller than the clearance from the bottom of the planes belly to bottom of the wing, you are more than like not have a good landing because one tip or the other is going to catch the grass and a cartwheel/turn around is almost guaranteed. So it is better to seek out tall dense grass. Wheat in the soft stage works ok, too.

Recently someone figured out that the FF guys have a solution to this. It could lead to a nice development, and make the answer much simpler.