Spirits and how to use them, Making a summoner Options

[Ted Stewart]

I'm playing in a large Shadowrun group. There's six PCs all told. We've basically got redundancy everywhere, and my covert ops specialist got gacked last game.

We've got a social adept without astral perception, and a mage who hasn't once used a summoning skill. That's it for awakened characters. I want to add some magical redundancy, and be the polar opposite of our existing mage. So I really want to play a summoning shaman.

This is where it gets tricky. I've read the rules for spirits and for summoning them, but I fall apart when I try to understand the potential implications in using them outside of combat.

From my understanding, here is what I know:
1) Drain from summoning spirits is incrediably variable compared to casting spells.
2) Spirits are incredibly versatile due to optional powers, and are most effective at Forces in multiples of three
3) Mages summon ranged spirits, while shaman summon melee spirits. Edit: For combat purposes, not as a whole
4) There are tons of things that spirits can do outside of combat, and those possibilities are extremely dependant upon tradition because spirits can only do things within their associated baliwick.

So my question is, what should I consider if I want to build a primarily summoning magical character? What weird and wonderful things can my minions do for me?

More specifically, should I take Magic 6 to be able to summon Force 6 spirits to get that second optional power without taking physical drain? Given the huge variability of summoning drain, summoning a Force 6 spirit could outright kill me if I take it as physical.

I tend to ask open-ended questions and then soak up what everybody brings up; it's how I learn about such things. Thank you in advance to those who respond!