It's too bad that Futaba has gotten out of the airplane specific gyro business all together. The only gyros that they now list, according to their web site, are the GY240 (HH only non switchable), GY401, and GY611 (for large helicopters). All the rest have been discontinued.
jkhorvath, it seems that your scare was a pilot induced situation rather than the fault of the gyro. I can think of several times when I did something that scared me such as landing with the elevator on very low rate when I needed high rate. I have to pay very close attention when I am flying. Senior moments are not allowed during flight.
My initial flights with the Jungmeister / gyro will be with the AVCS off and in normal mode (rate). If normal is sufficient then I may never try AVCS.
$124 is the best price I found for a 401 and here is how I did it. Omni models has a special on until the end of August where they will give a $15 discount for orders $150 or more. The 401 was $139 and I added some odds and ends to make the total come up to $150. There is no shipping charge over $100 and no tax.
http://www.omnimodels.com/
Jay, I understand now about the pilot. I have a good friend with a 1/3 scale BUSA Fokker DVII. I kept complaining to him about no pilot until he put one in. It sure improved the appearance of the plane.