RE: tuned pipes
Larry, yes you can expect to nuke plugs with a short header. Some fliers assume that a very short header just brings it on the pipe sooner, which it does but with consequences. You can run the engine rich and tune him to lean but the tuning will be something like walking a balance beam; the tuning will fall off more readily over a few flights. I dont even cut my headers anymore. I just get a pretuned pipe kit from Macs products, they get it close. If you run crank pressure in conjunction with a one way valve (you will need a cline regulator at the carb) you can expect great results. My favorite plug is the McCoy MC59; they take a beating.
Since we are on the subject of pipes, allow me a moment on my soapbox. I enjoy tuned exhaust, the sound of the engine making power is like music for me. I recently observed an incident where a club member spent time tuning his engine in the pits over a 1 hour period. He was called on it after a while, and a confrontation ensued. He didn't see the problem with the extent of it and would have needed help to haul his stuff to a designated runup area. We talked about it later and my response was that if he ran the engine next to my head for days on end, I wouldn't care, but the tuned pipe era is going away. A number of members at our club fly electrics, which I find cool but my observation was that new people to the hobby reject the noise of any two stroke engine. I think most people probably would have tapped him on the shoulder and ask to give it a rest but my point here is the heightened awareness of sound generation. Like all things modern, sound has succumbed to the environmental "footprint" as pc as that sounds.