I think you'll do fine with the new Avistar .46 Elite. You'll find flying is like riding a bike - you may get rusty but you really don't forget. It's a very honest plane and will do what you want once properly set up.

The Elite though is not the same as the previous Avistar - there are many differences. The new Avistar is larger, faster, lands faster, and I feel does aerobatics much better. It's also equipped with flaps which adds another dimension.

I'm currently flying mine on an Evolution .45 PTS out of an Alpha 40 after the .TT .46 Pro lost the top end pinch. I'm still able to get 500' loops from it. Spins are great and true spins. It starts recovering when the controls are neutralized. Rolls are great and only require a touch of elevator when inverted. The one thing I've found it doesn't like to do is well is stall turns - it requires a lot of opposite aileron to get a clean rotation. I've done all the aerobatics with flaps both retracted and at full extension and found no problems.

Stalls are straight forward but it will let you know when you stall. But you can also feed full up elevator in it, ride a stall down hill and it won't spin unless you force it into a rotation.

For landings you definitely need to make the flaps functional (I also have 10% down elevator mixed in as there is a ballooning if flaps are deployed at higher speeds). I get great nose high landings from mine flaps up or down, but the landing speed is a noticeably higher with a rather long ground roll. I fly off an asphalt runway and consider them a necessity if I don't want to put it down at the end of runway. I can enjoy doing touch-n-go's all day long with this plane.

One drawback I find is the Tactic radio. I know of only one person who flies Tactic, everybody else flies primarily Spektrum/JR & Futaba. I fly mine on Airtronics and have my own buddy box to use for giving instruction. So you may want to consider getting the ARF version and adding your own engine (the OS .55AX would be a great engine for it, and it'll fit with no issues) and radio. Talk to your local club and see what they have for buddy boxes and what they are compatible with.

As far as the Avistar 46 Elite goes, I think its a great flying plane and a lot of fun to fly. I say go for it.

Here's a link to mine when the engine died 2-1/2 min into the maiden flight.

Hogflyer