I think they must vary considerably!
My VP2, which weighed a lot more but still with only a VW1834, climbed a lot better than Stik describes. They do tend to levitate rather than climb like he says, and control harmony isn't great, but they can be great fun. Mine would cruise at 70mph which is as good as a Cub and was operated from a 250 metre strip, so not that bad! If you tried to raise the nose to climb you'd quickly reach the back of the drag curve and never climb out of ground effect, but let it levitate and it would climb away happily. It didn't like going much over 2500' though as the power needed made the temp climb quicker than the veep!
SS