I really didn't care all that much when I only had a 15 minute drive to the field .. no big deal if I had to go home without getting much flying done due to something going wrong. Now that I travel either 200 or 430 miles for each trip to go flying I have learned to standardize my equipment between my planes as much as I can, and carry one spare of each component wherever possible. Fortunately, stuff doesn't fail often, but when it does I can generally work around it in order to minimize the liklihood that I get only 1 flight in exchange for 7 hrs of driving and 43 gallons of gas.

I don't use a powerbox ; only one of my aircraft has a gyro in it, and it can be happily flown without when necessary ; one spare top of the line 10 channel RX and one spare matchbox sets me back $250 - quite a bit less than the $600 or so that a spare Weatronics costs (to say nothing of the cost of buying a laptop to take with me so that the necessary adjustments can be made at the field).

Please don't get me wrong ... I don't mean to put the Weatronics down at all. It sounds like a step in the right direction, and if the cost comes down so that it's more competitive with the cost of the parts I'd be replacing it with, or if I felt the need to use the various features that it has that I currently don't care about, or if it had the dual freq capability, I would give it a try. All I'm saying is that I prefer to assess the pros & the cons for how it fits MY particular requirements, rather than just jump on the "Look - it makes coffee too" bandwagon. Since my requirements no doubt differ from that of other people, everyone must make their own assesment of whether the Weatronics fits their paricular needs.

BTW, where are repairs and service for Weatronics being done, what is the warranty duration, and what sort of turn-around can be expected ? All of these kind of factors weigh into the purchasing decision for me.

Todd - sorry if this isn't directly answering your question, but maybe understanding why some people are ready to buy just now, and why others aren't quite ready yet, could still be of value in helping you make your decisions. Of the options you presented, A2 would be of the most interest to me, but the above reasoning would prevent me from making a purchase at this time.

Gordon