Thanks everyone!

I will visit a field probably this weekend and any advice you guys give me on how to fly the damn thing is useful so I can know if the pilot is doing a good job. I might get a simulator to try it out myself, those look fun in the RC shops.

Eddie, I will need to look into those batteries and do my research on motors. I have no idea how the gear boxes work as of right now or even how a brushless motor is different than normal electrical ones.

Thanks for the links Charles.I posted in the electrical forum and will post in aerodynamics when I do my research and size up my plane a little better. The aeajr article was amazing. Wish I know all that info last year. As for motorcalc, I believe my school has a student version of the software. I will have to get me hands on it.

updates:
I have managed to roughly size up my aircraft using historical data of winning team planes. I estimate the plane to have an empty weight of 2 to 2.5 lbs and loaded 4 to 5.5 lbs. Using the average power-to-weight the other teams were getting(average of about 70watts/lb), I am aiming for 350-400 watts. With the 15amp restriction I will need about 22 cells of the 1.2V batteries which is about 1.2lbs with wiring and such.