Like you, I've been flying an assortment of 'stuff' a while too. A year ago, I had a similar urge to the one you're talking about. I had been pushing my gassers to the point a lot of guys I fly with thought the Rev 70 was a 3D plane? And I had been breaking them as well, but I was hooked. I wanted to know more about 3D, but on a bit more of a budget?

Here's where I ended up after a lot of research:
http://www.nitroplanes.com/02a-004-swift-epp-kit.html
http://www.nitroplanes.com/02a-008-1...d-epp-kit.html

A year later, I've accumulated a huge amount of stick time (take the landing gear off and they work great on snow and ice!), I've broken both planes countless times, and I'm still VERY happy with my choices. Oh, and I fly these 20 times for every time I get a gasser out any more.

They're perfect on 15-1800mah 3s batts, OK on 2200's, especially the larger Swift, but they can't be over about 105mm long. The EPP is perfect for learning as it's tough and very easily repaired when you break it. Regular CA works fine, doesn't melt the stuff. There's forums dedicated to both of these out there. Not as big as the Revolver one, but plenty to get you going in the right direction. Google them or PM your email.

These fly easily in winds up to about 10mph. You can fly in higher, but you'll be fighting them, and you'll need a pretty good size yard, or be a pretty good flyer to fly in a smaller one. Give yourself some room at first!

Holler if you decide to go this way. I can give you a hand with the electronics, including cheap metal gear servos, that will let you get either of these in the air very reasonably - with stuff that's not going to break or bend every time you crash. That lets you stay pretty ballsy down low and close in with much less fear of encounters of the ground kind? Mine have grass stains on both wing tips, top and bottom of the rudder and of course the front end. It looks like a prop tip with an entire season on it..... -Al