It has occured to me, that the N900 has several features that would be really useful in flying model planes. For example the accelerometer, camera and the GPS (altimeter and speedometer). Writing the software for this shouldn't be too hard, and if the camera isn't used it could be text only.
The only problem I can think of this is the wireless range. What would have the best range out of the wifi or bluetooth radios? I'm thinking of having a laptop at the flying field to recieve the signal, or ssh into the phone for the text only solution.