- make sure the mounting frames for the retracts are very flat else you can flex the retract when you tighten the mounting bolts down. This can cause problems that are tricky to isolate and might only happen in the air.

- don't use a grease or any liquid for lubrication of the retract mechanism, it attract grit and the resulting gritty paste will wipe out the retract over time.

- I cut all my lines with a special cutter I got from Todd, it seems to help.

- I have used those robart knurled things once or twice, hard to tell if they help or not. I don't use them or safety wire.

- good airline is_critical.....call UP and ask them about airline, they will tell you the straight scoop. I love their airline and use it exclusively.

- Maybe those all in one control unit brick things are bulletproof now (they sure weren't in the beginning and crazy expensive)), I never saw the need for them I use the UP valves (and he give free repairs and crash dmage for life so you really only need to buy a couple for your entire hobby career). I use his for sequencing with doors as well. I cannot imagine those big brick controllers are lighter than a valve and a mini servo, but who knows.

- Don't use a micro servo on the valve, use a nice mini with metal gears if you are going to actuate the valve manually. this can strip nylon gears. Make sure and take that into account, you usually want to be able to actuate the gear with the radio off, but this has become less of an issue with the spread spectrum radios.

- I use the rare earth magnets now on basically every gear door. They are great.

BTW why in the world are you worried about getting flamed for this question??