It flew like the other four at my field; amazingly well.

While lateral balance can be important, it is one of those things that usually can be ignored without much, if any, penalty; especially in a plane that will be mostly thrown around and won't be spending much time flying in a straight line. It may resemble one, but a pattern plane this ain't!

I'm sure the purists will flay me for the above remarks. Before they get their knickers in too big of a twist, I usually do balance my planks laterally; I just never got around to it on this one.

If that "cylinder sticking out of the side" doesn't offend you, a side-mounted engine kills several birds with one rock; especially if it is a non-pressurized or non-pumped engine.

Steve