That pic looks very familiar. I put a skid on my tail cone
According to my fish scale, which I really haven't checked for accuracy, mine weighed 22# dry (hopper full) with a P-60, full cockpit & pilot (heavy), and two heavy 5 cell NiCds and heavy ECU pack in the nose. It now has a Wren SS and even heavier batteries in the nose plus two more servos for ailerons instead of just tailerons.

Your brakes sound normal.

I think my CG is about 160mm.

With the Falcon I would pull the gear up and fly around at about 1/3 throttle and ease the speed up as you get it trimmed out and comfortable. When clean at certain angles coming toward you it will literally disappear if at a distance so don't let it get too far out.

Before landing make a few laps around with gear down at slow speed to get ready for the landing. At altitude see how slow you can fly it. Into a breeze it will almost come to a stop. But as others said, if you don't get the nose up some on landing it will scoot by so fast that even at an airport the landing will be too far away for comfort. Be sure to set your timer with time to spare for go-arounds which should be no problem with the Falcon.

Other than that it's a piece of cake