Why would you think DF is "old hat?"
I'm puzzled myself by that statement. Electric DF especially is state of the art these days.
Actually running out of the mind set it takes to set up R/C models. I'm old, tired and lazy. Running out of money also.
I'm confused by this as well. Is the cost issue due to a problem with your RC gear? Because the cost of a C/L kit isn't much if any cheaper than an RC kit. My Brodak Flite Streak kit cost me $60. The Brodak Baby Flite Streak was over $30 IIRC.
I got back into C/L because I wanted to re-live the old days back in the late 60's/early 70's. If I were lazy I wouldn't have flown the FS last Saturday. I spent an hour just setting up my circle and hauling all the gear out to the far corner of the RC field. I could have flown 5 or 6 flights in the time it took me to set up and fly 3 flights on the FS.
Not that I'm saying you shouldn't do it. I'm just saying that for me at least it's a labor of love, RC is much less hassle. Especially since I fly almost exclusively electric. And even my 1/3 scale Spacewalker is less setup than C/L. As much as I enjoy flying C/L again it'll never replace RC.