The ft racer is discontinued.
The ft scouts recommend wheels are 2.5 - 4 inch wheels......
The speed build kit, comes with the landing gear wire .. but not the wheels,
So you have to buy them separately.
Or build them. A lot of the early designs used foamboard wheels.
David, as you're finding out, the hurdles that new pilots often face with getting those first successful flights is proper CG, getting the control surfaces moving the correct directions, and once in the air, getting the plane properly trimmed.
For someone just starting out, flying the more "boring" planes are best because they're more stable, they're more forgiving if the CG or trim isn't perfect, and they are a bit slower to react to inputs.
There's a few reasons why this is important. One is that a new pilot will have enough challenges trying to fly a plane that is flying as it should. A plane out of trim is fighting that. So the more sensitive a plane is to accurate trim settings, the more difficult it will be for the new pilot.
Another is that a new pilot needs to think about every stick input they make as they do it. Pilots with more experience are working from muscle memory, and don't have that delay. So a new pilot needs a plane that will sort of just sit in the air between decisions.
The biggest issue that new pilots have is that when the plane doesn't fly right, they don't know if it's the plane's fault, or their own lack of experience. They haven't learned yet to identify if it was a CG issue, a trim issue, or even a reversed servo issue. So, don't be disheartened when people tell you that you need a different plane to learn on. We all have been through it, and it's a lesson many decades in the making.