RE: Getting back into it... what about pushrods? ARF question
Didn't notice the wood prop part of your question til now.
NO! Not at first, wood props break way too easy at the slightest touch with alsmost anything. You'll be buying a lot of props until you get your landings down. Once your landings are reliably good a wood or APC prop will be fine.
I still use MAS props, I'm just not all that worried about a little loss of efficiency due to flex.