I agree with C/F on the HS-85 metal geared servo. Very tough and work great. I like the Hitec recievers also. The 555 will take a ton of abuse and vibration without fialure. Radical RC has a great 300 ma NiMh battery for arond 9$. Very light and small. I also like to use a servo on each aileron. Much more authority and some redundancy. Also if you fly a scale plane and have a servo in the center of the wing and the wing shifts in a midair your servo is jammed and probably you have a large hole in the side of the fuselage where the servo went through! I've landed with the wing at some amazing angles. Funny thing is that it doesn't seem to fly to bad even out to 45 degrees or so!