Well as a one-time group owner of the prototype Taylor Monoplane, G-APRT, I can confirm Jim's experience with over-centering/control reversal of the ailerons unless exceptionally carefully rigged. When we first bought it from the previous owner in 1973 it was in an even worse state that we first thought, although it had a current Permit to Fly and I ferried it from Halfpenny Green to Coleford and blasted it around for a few weeks before tearing it all apart and finding several horrors.
I provided the full story on this to Clutton Fred some years ago, before I joined this group, so I won't attempt to repeat it all here. 'PRT has been recently retired to a museum by its last owner who felt that its lack of stall warning might prove fatal to a neophyte pilot, and indeed a few Monoplanes have suffered stall/spin accidents, one at least fatal as I recall. I also remember a beautiful Titch crashing on take off from the strip from which I was operating the Flitzer back in the '90s. There was some discussion that possibly a one-man tent and camping gear had impeded the pilot's control inputs, after all there's not that much extra room in a Titch.
The history of 'PRT was published in the last issue of Vintage and Classic Magazine, but there was a lot of missing information about its operational use from over 40 years ago. So I wrote an article to fill in this detail which should appear in the latest magazine. It included several photographs of the Taylor in its 'Yak 9' guise, in which the sling seat was lowered to its maximum possible depth and a sliding canopy was fitted. I also increased the length of the undercarriage legs by 3" and reduced their rake considerably which massively improved ground handling and manoeuvrability as well as enabling fully-stalled three-point landings.
I attach a couple of photographs and a PFA submission drawing from the article herewith. In one I am kneeling down to better create the impression of standing in front of a 'real Yak'.
Oh, well. Back to working on my Sperry.