Gee thanks Keith, just when I was feeling happy that I had cracked it!
The trouble with these exams is that you will never know which ones you got wrong so lose the learning opportunity that would give. It would be really nice to get a resume of the errors for future reference.
Looking again at the problem I bet your second thought is correct as for the vertical gust you don't need to know the load factor of the 2xVs situation. That doesn't stop them including it as a red herring of course!
Nigel