Thanks Carl!
That is very good advice. I will create a new app that has the sole purpose of transferring the small amount of data you recommended.
To answer your questions. No, I can't tell if the request.data is making it to the server. (I don't know if the way I am doing it is even communicating to the server???)
Unfortunately, I am VERY new to php and xml, and somewhat new to as3.
I don't even know if what I am trying is the right way to send and receive data. I am comfortable loading the XML document from the server. Other than that, I am lost in the world of send and