G'day

I missed the question about the glide.

All aeroplanes can glide. Some better than others. I had a Phoenix P-47 Thunderbolt that dead sticked on me a couple of times when the engine was being sorted out (Thunder Tiger 91 four stroke) and it had an amazingly good glide for a warbird. The trick is to keep the nose down to keep the airspeed up. If you are high enough you can glide for miles in anything.

Your Strega will have a larger glide angle than a purpose designed glider but will still glide well so long as you don't do the usual beginner thing and try to hold it in the air with the elevator. You just have to let it sink at a fast enough rate to keep its airspeed up to where it likes to be.

Some years back an Airbus (real passenger plane) ran out of fuel over the Atlantic thanks to a leaking fuel line and some mistakes by the crew. They managed to glide it for 350 km before landing it. The landing was rather "hot" as they could not use flaps but they got it down in one piece. Just.

If you do a search for Airbus Glider you will find the story.