I tried and tried, in 1/2 flaps, and FULL flaps, in the training bird with full fuel all the way down to about 4000 lbs, doing full loops on take off, just doing vertical climbs, and 45° climbs, all at several airspeeds. I couldn't get the trim to "stick" in full up as you described Mr. Azframer, sir. I used full deflection on the stick too. No sticking. I'm sorry, I really did try hard to duplicate the conditions you described.
I figured out the "pop" off the runway I was getting. After touchdown I set flaps back to half and the plane just floats off the runway like normal, when I pull back on the stick enough. I didn't read this procedure in any NATOPS manuals, so it must be peculiar to this particular plane, is all. I understand the extra stick deflection required, since I am NOT going to look down and set the pitch trim for T/O! I wonder if there is a button assignment I can use...or maybe use the manual pitch trim to get things set for T/O real fast. Hmmmmm
I did change the Aileron PID numbers in the aircraft.cfg a little bit, but it's much better FOR ME now. I set them to
1.7372,0.0491,0.00. Not a huge change, and it's just as agile, it just took me several tries to roll to a specific angle. It doesn't move so fast I can't react in time to stop it now, like it did before, so I had to wobble back and forth to find the bank angle I wanted, like it was before, even if that angle was 0

EDIT: I did manage to make one teensey-weensey little change for the better, instead of complaining endlessly

The HUD has been off-center since it came out. Bugged me for some reason. I changed the line in the panel.cfg for the
[VCcockpit01] gauge11=FA18_HUD\FA18_HUD_VC_R!FA18_HUD_VC_R, 598, 505, 426, 471. Please note the horizontal position change to
598, and the Width to
426. These changes perfectly center the HUD both in size and position within it's frame. In my display at least. Not a big change, but heck, I do what I can
I do really like the ability to manually trim the plane now, too. That's very nice! Both U/A and P/A. It's great

That's all I have for today. Thank you very much for such an awesome plane. This thing is amazing!
Pat☺