Jody, If you are an avid heli pilot, and have flown other pilot's planes as you described, and have practiced with planes on a sim, I'd suggest you ignore most of the nay sayers posts. I've gone the other way, i.e. I'm an avid plane pilot, and wanted a 30 sized heli. I practiced on the sim, and then built, setup and flew my heli unassisted without incident.

RC planes and Helis require very similar skill sets. If you can do one, the transition to the other is easy. Issues such as orientation, control, etc. are basically identical between the two. The main diff is altitude control, i.e. collective on heli and elevator on plane.

I'd agree that being an aircraft engineer, understanding the physics, etc. will not improve your chances of flying RC much... but the point is really moot as you have RC heli experience too.

My "flight" suggestion is that you have a more experienced buddy check out, fly and trim your plane on the first flight. Then, for your first flights, have one of your buds act as a spotter. That way, if you should get into trouble, they can bark out orders, or worse case they can take TX back from you.

As for gear... prop is wrong for that engine... but that's been covered. On servos, verify torque. I don't know the specs on what you listed and didn't bother to look them up, but on a plane that size with that engine, I'd suggest at least 80 oz-in of torque on rudder, ailerons and total elevator (i.e. 40 oz-in per side is fine with a split elevator using two servos.) Don't have to be coreless or digital as long as the torque is right.

Cheers