Lipos are only as dangerous as the user. I have thousands of cycles through my lipos and have never had any fires, in the air or on the ground. They do wear-out though, after about 500 cycles, you may have them puff-up or lose much of their capacity.

It's true, however, that the advantages you may gain such as weight, capacity and discharge rate are not worth the hassle, IMHO. I run lithium Ions in all of my planes. They're cheaper than lipos, more stable and idiot-proof than lipos and they offer similar capacity and weight savings.

Any 2-cell lipo, and depending on the reg, any 3-cell lipo will be just fine. You do not need to charge the cells individually, and balancing is a tad overrated. Balance them once every 50-100 cycles and you're fine. A 2 cell lipo runs at 7.4V, a 3 ceel runs at 11.1V. You just need a reg that can handle the drop.

Good luck!!