Hi John, a man after my own heart! I build a lot of transport and recon missions - actually quite a big subject - but a few mission building tips:
1. With (presumably) no combat, it's all about the visuals. So, choose good quality maps, hills and mountains look better than flat. Try to find maps with big airfields to give you plenty of taxi room - starting inside a hanger with lots of ground crew is good. Don't fly too high (ruins the view), and don't fly in the middle of the day - longer shadows look good.
2. Same with your aircraft - look for good cockpits. Good recent addition is the Storch (even has working float fuel gauges on the wings). Look for anything mace has done - he usually adds a recon loadout and cameras e.g. Project Beartrap, Vulcan/Victor/Harrier. A special mention for his recent drone, which is great fun!
3. Use message triggers. Adding these can really spin out an otherwise mundane mission. e.g. start with a point-to point transport job - at point #2 add a message trigger to lead you on to a different task, and so on. Before you know it your mission pans out to a long haul with multiple tasks and objectives.