Eric,
There are many creative self-build frames. You can get CF rod and tubing from
www.Unitedhobbies.com. I would certainly take apart the DF TX and simply put some heat shrink over the lever's pressure arm and also bend it out a bit to loosen it. That will get rid of the rachet action for easier heli/quad flyng, and it is reversible. Do a search in the rcgroups forum for Mikrokopter, UVAP, X-UFO. That Walkera board looked promising for an opti-mod BL too. The folks over in the Walkera UFO forum at rcgroups seem to like it. It certainly hovers in the video...
Maybe setting a dual rate of 50% and/or -50 exponential would help with hovering?
Cheers,
Jim