As others have said, wooden pushrods are great. They have been around forever for a reason, they work. There is one mod that I prefer to make over the supplied heat shrink to hold the rods in the wood. Use thread first, CA, then the heat shrink. Look at my review of the World Models Super Chipmunk to see how I did this
[link]http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine/article_display.cfm?article_id=814[/link] Scroll down to the "Elevator and Rudder Pushrods" section.

Basically what you do is this. Install the metal rod in the wood. Then use cotton thread to completely wrap the dowel rod where the pushrod goes in to it. Apply thin CA to the cotton thread to harden it. Then put the heat shrink of it. This will last forever and give you a good reliable connection between the pushrod and the dowel rod.

Ken