I'll try to do my best. I really love WWI planes and this community, but its very difficult, because I can't reproduce the fail until now.....
Give me some time, please, because my dog is in a medical emergency and I can't work on it today. Meanwhile, in the AI data of the planes there is a line that says TakeOffRotationAngle=15.0. I have no idea what's the meaning (copied from the AI of Peter01's Aviatik CII). You can change the number or even delete the line (some planes doesn't have this line). Check also the engine data. Search for the line ThrustPosition=0.0,1.7,0.0. Change it to ThrustPosition=0.0,0.0,0.0. This eliminate the plane torque. Maybe it can be useful. I hope it works. If not, please, tell me and I'll try to fix it when I'll can. Good luck!!!
By the way, the "stalling after autopilot" thing: I think it's because the planes are veery slow to climb, so you force a litle the plane to climb more steeply, so when you hit the autopilot you are nearly stalling, going "warp speed", and when exiting "warp speed" stalling. Same for the exploding Lloyds. Maybe when you hit autopilot, they are crashing because the take off bug, they go war speed and destroying after warp seed (a cazy theory maybe).