Jester - Your comments about the sim are what kind of worries me at the moment.  I bought a sim which I am having fun playing about with and would probably feel confident enough now to send a trainer up for my first time flying and be able to land it as well?  But I am worried I am teaching myself bad habits and like Mike said - I am also a bit worried that the sim is giving me a false sense of security and when I do get down to a club and give it a go, I am going to be severely dissapointed.

So - Like the previous posts have mentioned and just from what I've learnt on this forum over the last few weeks, I think the best way to get into this hobby is to do it in this order:

1.  Join a club!  (Which I am yet to do myself I might add)
2.  After talking to members at that club, work out what is the best plane/engine to start with (I think you have a made a good choice there) and the best/most compatible/appropriate radio to get depending on buddybox availability.
3.  Try and get up in the air a few times (if your club or someone has a trainer you can use) so you know what to practice on a sim.
4.  Buy or, better still, borrow a sim and practice/have fun flying and crashing.  Is best to get all your crashes out of the way on the sim!
5.  Find someone there that is willing to help you out where needed during your kit build.
6.  Learn and enjoy the hobby.

I'm sure there are a few more steps I left out there but I think number 1 is probably the most important because that way, you can get one on one hands-on help and advice.  This forum is extremely helpful but it is limited by words and pictures where as someone in person can explain and show you what's going on at the same time.

It looks like we are heading down the same path Dom.  I have an LT-40 kit waiting for me to get started on and I just bought myself RealFlight 4.5 a couple of weeks back.  But I'm yet to achieve step one due to lack of spare time at the moment.  I really should join a club before I start my build though.  You never know, there might even be a guy from the club who lives on your street who builds his own planes that would love to help out???

Good luck with it all anyway!

PS - Remember all that ramble has come from a begginer so it could be pretty useless advice but it's just what I have come to the conclusion of so far!<br type="_moz"/>