Ron,

I think you're choice is a good one for either the 40 or 60. If you're in a windy zone of AZ, then the 60 being heavier, would be more stable in flight. The 4 Star series are very slow to tip stall with landings a walking speed. I have yet to see any gear failure from the ones in our club. I'm flying the Modeltech DragonLady which has the same traits as the 4 Stars, only choosing it since there were so many Sig's at our club, that I wanted to fly something a bit different. You really won't notice anything much different from the Avistar. That style plane makes an excellent low wing trainer before going to large gas or the fun-fly / 3D planes.