Voltwatches look funny on scale warbirds .

Seriously though, lots of good info in here.

The only thing I want to add/reinforce is how much difference your control system can make. It really doesn't make much friction in the pushrods to eat the battery in a hurry. One of the real battery killers in glow planes is the throttle servo. A lot of guys seem to like to stall out that servo at full throttle.

Hooking an amp meter (or, if you have one, one of the electric flight watt meters) between your battery and RX can really tell you a lot about your control system. Hook it up, then move the sticks through their full range and watch the power draw, if there is a problem you'll see the current jump up.