I have about a dozen flights on mine now with a Magnum 1.20. It surprisingly came out tail heavy even with the pull-pull setup. It flies like a dream though and lands even better. Wheels are a little small for my grass field and the tail assembly is pretty much worhless. It keeps bending when just rolling thru grass. The plane will do all of the moves I put it through. It will not do all 3-D but it is a great flier.
The control rods work just fine on mine so far. I CA'd then into the clevis and they aren't going anywhere. It was a very easy build per the instructions. The 1.20 just barely fits into the cowl but with a 4 stroke there is minimal cutting of the cowl anyway. Just cut away for the cooling fins on the engine. With that cutting I didn't even have to use a remote glow starter. The glow plug is in perfect position. I even used the included engine mount for the 1.20. Fit like a glove.