About the Avistar,

I crashed my Avistar 3 times and it survived. With a little CA glue and tape, its fine. As for radios, I heard a rumor at our club saying that if you know how to set the clock on your VCR you can use a computer radio. FALSE. My VCR clock still blinks at 12:00 and I use my Futaba 7C radio. They are very easy to use. Also, not to make anyone paranoid or nervous, this is what happened to the wing when I stalled my Avistar. The rubber bands snapped off and went right through the wing.