I was in the same mode two weeks ago and bought a $150 T-Hawk from
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It has been a blast!! We assembled it in about 20 minutes and charged the battery. I just read the manual went out to a big field and my son and I hand launched it. We flew it about 1 hour and had a ton of fun. We had some amazing crashes and learned how to fly it by the seat of our pants but at the end of the hour we were doing pretty good. The plane took a lot of punishment and had no damage. I had never flown or even seen one flown before so we really had no idea what we were doing. But now we can't wait until we can do it again next weekend. Good luck!
Well, to be perfectly honest, I followed the path that most people suggest
> and recommend of going to the local airfield and introduce myself and ask
> for assistance. However everytime I have done this, I always get the feeling
> that "most" people there talk way over my head and want you to buy what they
> have right off the bat. I guess they assume that you have a limitless budget
> to work with. It's like they forget what being a true newbie is. I have on
> the rare occasion found the solo flyer out in Farmer Brown's field just
> putzing around and gotten more information and help than anywhere else,
> however this type of RC pilot is a rare breed. In my opinion this is the
> grassroots guy that truly loves what he is doing and remember's where he
> started. I subscribed to one of the publications that covered what I think
> might be of most interest to me. Backyard Flyer
>
> Now, as for my limited budget, at most any one time I only have about 100
> dollars in reserve and would like to make maximum use out of it when I
> finally find that first airplane that I will learn the most from. The next
> major obstacle is work space. I live in a small metro apartment, so the
> largest work space that I can come up with is my dining room table which is
> only about 4 feet long and about 3 wide. I certainly can't leave the
> unfinished kit sitting on it for an extended period of time.
>
> So, I guess these are the main reasons for becoming discouraged. The
> overwhelming amount and cost of what each person perceives as what you need
> to buy to get "started", the limited work space available to build what they
> think you should buy, and lack of good neighborly assistance for a lack of
> better terms.
>
> Peter