Replacing the Firespitter wings with stock delta wings did the trick! I took off almost by accident, accidentally turning right to account for rightward drifting, bouncing off one of the runway's lights, and...well...spinning myself out of control. I blame Farram. If I could fly an airplane, I would have taken off successfully; I just know it!
One-third thrust is fairly controllable, but it has the slight disadvantage of not letting me actually gain altitude. Two-thirds thrust has issues, like how my attempts to stay on the runway knocked off one wing, meaning that when I shot off the end of the runway (having cut thrust) I promptly lost the other wing, struck the ground, and bounced up, EVAing just in time to escape the cockpit...which bobbed about, intact, as Jeb splashed down hard some distance out to see.
The second attempt lead to an even worse crash, flipping over sideways and exploding. The only surviving bit was one set of landing gear, rolling end-over-end away from the runway for an astonishing amount of time and distance.
"One of"...wait a sec...I think I get how those biplane landing gears are supposed to work now!
Probably not with a big jet attached to the back. Maybe it was Farram, but I hit the staging button and the next thing I know...
As I struggle to get the screen shotted, I notice a conspicuous lack of explosions. Sure enough, Jeb managed to fly this thing!
The "Large AoO/Slideslip," which I assume is FAR for "how are you flying half an airplane?!?", leads to me deciding to revert to launch and see if 1/3 throttle goes over better.
I'm thinking that's a "no".
I redesign the craft and make sure that the centers of lift and gravity are identical. I promptly lift into the air, partly because of my delta/structural wing. I overturn down, bounce up, stall briefly, then return to normal flight very quickly...possibly because of that reaction wheel. It flies well; I head to the abandoned runway on that island, but overshoot it (with the prop off--I don't go there much, okay? And I was still going over 120 m/s!). I try to turn around, but wind up stalling and as I turn to try and get back under control...well...the landing gear and tail fins not only survived the splashdown, but bounced enthusiastically for some time.
How is Farram supposed to work, and did I do well for a first time?