this is the most important feature for me too. I would rather have audio then great film quality.
Very true.. it's often the audio that makes the film. Constant wind or engine noise means you're usually left having to take the audio out, or overlay some cheesy music.
I was toying with the idea of a ContourHD or GoPro too.. ended up deciding on the GoPro, but at the same time work bought me a Kodak Zi8 for video blogging.
The Zi8 is about the size of a Blackberry, but importantly has an external mic jack. So i bought a small lavalier mic to slip under the heaphone cup and catch the cockpit audio.
All in all the setup works very well and the video quality is just as good, if not better than the GoPro. Kodak also do a wide angle lens you can add to the Zi8 as well.