Big plans are fun! But practical?

May I suggest that you go get an ARF and start from there, because that is enough to allow you to feel "as if you're doing something" and it'll allow you to realize just how much can go into these, and also it may help you realize how easy they are to loose control of.

In other words, go for it if you want to spend your time designing a plane... that's totally cool! BUt why don't you (in addition) go out and buy an ARF (Almost Ready to Fly) or a RTF (Ready To Fly), during your building project.

It'll give you the experience in flying an RC model, and give you some design ideas on how to make some practical improvements... not to mention you'll be amore able to take your time "designing" rather than wishing it were done so you could go fly it (without the alternative), or worse... you could crash it.

I just got mine up in the air today and already have plans for my second plane, a Carl Goldberg Super Decathlon. But if I didn't have this experience, there's NO WAY I'd want to take the risk of loss for not knowing even the simplest of things: http://www.rcuniverse.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=330116&forumid=22 read this thread, please!

Good luck in your venture, but please take the advice of others.

And one last note: You'll soon find out how this can "nickle and dime" your way to spending a ton of cold-hard cash.

MacAirr