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I'm leaning towards AO-27 for listen only, as I know the bird will be jam packed with ops that weekend (although I do have a decent pass at 230 am local Sunday, and an even better one at 4 am) and actually trying to make a contact on SO-50, although I'm sure it will be busy too.
Let me save you some sleep. AO-27 is only on for the ascending passes in the afternoon, and only for 7 minutes starting at about 30 degrees latitude. This means the first several minutes of the afternoon pass will be silent from your QTH, and all of the overnight passes.
Definitely AO-7 for my linear choice, as I know the linear birds won't be as busy as the FM ones. FO-29 is my next choice.
FO-29 and VO-52 will work better on FD, as AO-7 tends to get overloaded easily.
I'm planning on using the Arrow antenna with my VX5-R for the FM birds, and I have an M-Squared 2M/440 (same boom, but offset 90 degrees) with an "armstrong" az/el control for the linear ones with my TS-2000X.
Why give up full duplex and the TS-2000 to use the VX5 on FM? Half-duplex is a poor choice for satellite on normal days, let alone Field Day. If it's because of the birdie, use the TS2000 as the transmitter and the VX5 for receive only.
Good luck. If you aren't a regular satellite user, try some passes outside of Field Day to improve your chances of success.
73, Drew KO4MA