Thanks Phil, lots of info there and a great website too.
The 1+1 & 2+1 boards look to be exactly what I would need I probably did not express myself too clearly, 1 ch for DT and a 2nd for the rudder tab but not fully proportional, just left & right buttons to move the tab over enough to induce some kind of a turn in the model. They 'are' free flight after all :-)
A 3rd ch would be for things like motor control or turning on the locator alarm etc.
Yes - I would like to knock something up myself using PicAxes, since I am using them for various other airborne modules but have no idea of how to work out the encoder side for the 2.4 modules to operate properly.
I started reading through the info on your website late last night before heading to bed so will read more today and contact you directly.
Cheers - Mark