Just read the rest of your post, and I believe there is also a way to set a default state. If you go to the 2nd page of the CDU options menu, you can set "set default state". I think you then need to save a custom panel state called "Default"....

What I would like, is for the panel state to be saved when I save the scenario in p3d, so that I can load up my plane at the location it arrived in, and continue my adventure!  :)