WM, I don't know enough to respond, but if it's the case, It would be news to me as I always thought the prop balance was a separate issue. I'll look into it though. Thanks.
Your other comments are pretty much spot on though and I feel like it's time I stuck my nose back in the books too.
Jackie Cochrane in her biography said a similar thing. Her comments were that when she started off flying, it was pretty rare to make the journey in one hop and quite common to have to find a field, set down and clean the plugs. Not sure I'm ready for quite THAT level of education.
Cheers.