OK tonight raised the nosewheel .25 inch (for definite positive incidence), switched out the motor and prop, and stiffened up the nosegear wire. Hope to get out Thurs. night and will report back how it all worked out.

When reinstalling the engines on a trainer, do I bolt down any left or right thrust to the engine?

Never left. Straight or right depending upon the plane. If unsure, start with it straight in the mount. You can correct from there later if needed.

Did your instructor not think about a hand launch?, I have done this by myself on my .40 trainer, although it is literally a handfull, just power up the throttle and chuck it....Rog

He did mention it as a possibility but by that time it was beginning toward dark and he owed another student a flight, so we didn't try it.

with that weight and not knowing the flight characteristics of it, i wouldn't risk hand-launching it.

OK here's an update.

I lowered the nosegear to raise the wing incidence and switched out the .40 for the .46 and put the 11 X 6 prop on the the .46

I went out to the field tonight at about 7:45 on a beautiful Sunday night with no wind. To my surprise there were only 2 people left, apparently all the others had gone home for dinner.

So I asked if they minded if I practiced taxing since I haven't ever soloed. The one guy was the owner of one of our 2 LH shops and was willing to help. We taxied around for a while and I told him I'd love him to take it up to trim it out, which he was kind enough to do. (This is an old Tiger Trainer Skylark, that I modified and completely restored).

After we trimmed out the nosewheel on the ground, he took it up beautifully, did a couple circuits, and told me. "You build a nice straight plane. You're going to love this." It only needed one click of aileron trim. I had put on all new control surfaces, recovered, basacally rebuilt, and added wingspan out to 65". What Joy to see it fly so nice! And he brought it in for a nice soft floaty landing. He told me he had to leave, and to practice my groundschool. So there I was by my lonesome. Smelling God's country on an early summer night, all by myself.

So I went up and down, down and up the grass field, on the ground, learning so much about how the nosewheel gets less effective as the airspeed affects the rudder. I was soooo tempted when I had airspeed to take it up for a couple of circuits, but I've never landed, I remembered him saying "You'll love this plane." (And I didn't bring a trash bag).

I was having a blast with the field all to myself, but feeling just a bit vulnerable all by myself with my car tailgate open in the middle of nowhere, and just then, a team of vans come screaming up the hill and a guy jumps out and runs to me and says, "We have have a hot-air balloon and do you mind if we use your field for a couple minutes?" I said, not at all, i'm not flying. So here comes the balloon, it's looking for a place to land, and those poor sobs are at the mercy of breeze, no rudder or steering! They missed our field because of the breeze took them a bit north, and they used the torches to stay just above the trees, and they put down just beyond in the field, just short of of power lines and more trees. Those guys are pilots!!

All in all, quite a night.

Good for you nice report, I am happy she finally made it off the ground. Enjoy it

One change or a combination of changes. Doesn't matter, you have a good flying plane now so just stick with what you have and enjoy it.

On to the lessons and more fun.