I didn't mean to push you away. I meant to point out that all activities have their unique requirements. Electric flight is no different.

In fact, as a direct result of your post and several others I created this thread as a reference resource

EVERYTHING YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT ELECTRIC FLIGHT
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_7100376/tm.htm

Take a look.

As for batteries, yes, NiMh and NiCd are more tollerant of abuse and miss handling than Lipos. So if Lipo handling concerns you, use NiMh. About half the capacity of Lipos for the same weight but in most applications they work just fine.