I was able to finally start a hardware development.  It is an ambitious project to replace my existing flight computer.  The plans include an Arduino at the core to manage telemetry, data collection and storage, and possibly experiments.
I started with an investigation into the DNT900 Transceiver built by RFM.  This 900 MHz transceiver features high data rates and a 40 mile line-of-site range.  I successfully prototyped one transceiver just to request configuration information from it.  Next, I will set up the second transceiver and drive it from the Arduino.