ORIGINAL: hilleyja
Your buying approach is the way to do it. Be thoroughly familiar with it before you spend your money. Frankly though, if you find the 9C lacking then your only alternative is the top-of-the-line JR or Futaba, each of which costs almost triple what the 9C costs.
I think you will find that even though the 9C is predominently an 8-channel radio it is still the one to own short of the extremely high-end JR or Futaba. It is capable of controlling 99.
999999% of the airplanes out there.
As always Jim thank you for the comments and input!! The more info I have the better to make a sound decision. Almost there now...