Thanks, Stew.
I figure on a minimum of ten years to get it airborne during which time I'll be able to make and revise a whole bunch of hard & fast decisions. There will be some other airplanes between now and the wheels up on the '25 to first help get me back into flying RC then transition to twins then upgrade the size plus test a few ideas. Up to the Ziroli B-25 I'll be flying electrics, however there are motors large enough to handle either of the Ziroli B-25s as well. All will be capable of FPV (First Person Video - ie, cockpit camera) and all should have flaps and retractable landing gear to get me in the practice of using them, though the entry plane might not have retracts.
With that, there is a nice relationship between the Cessna 210 and the rest of their single engine line so it may be possible to equip a 182 I saw on ePay (decent as a trainer - high wing, semi-symmetrical airfoil, stable, fairly docile) with retracts - and flaps if needed. I can't remember if it was so equipped or not. I just have to deal with CG shifts between gear up and gear down which might be a bit touchy.
There are two things I have to deal with here, weather - mostly winds - and the ocean. Oh, and the lack of fields and instructors (to use as check pilots since I've flown RC already) where I am and a limited ability to get to where they are. Managing the first two implies airplanes large, fast and heavy enough not to fall prey to them. This limits where I can fly out of but I'm sure somewhere will appear. Aside from the aforementioned Cessna model, I've got a few ideas which planes I'd like to use for the path to the big'ns
None of the planes I've looked at other than the Ziroli B-25s requires more than 7 channels (elevator, ailerons, elevators, flaps, landing gear, two throttles). The Ziroli planes require 8, with duplicate radios for redundancy. The radios I'll probably use for everything other than the Ziroli planes will be cheap (read as: Chinese imports) Futuba-compatable 9 channel sets since the receivers will be inexpensive to replace as needed. Auxiliary stuff (cameras, etc) will be handled via an equally inexpensive second radio system to keep the main radio free of the extra load. Doesn't that sound like a whole bunch of fun?
In the meantime, I'm assembling a few questions regarding radios & servos, various model autopilots and other toys, construction materials, e-flight motors & ESCs, engines, getting around the FAA's 500' rule, and finding the question the answer to which is 42.
BEst regards,
Kludge