Yep.  Sounds like you are me but on the other side of the world cause I am thinking the exact same thing, we're building the same plane (well I haven't started mine yet) and we are both really good blokes!  Ha ha.  Nah - I'm sure we're not the first two newbies to be heading down this same road.  I'm gonna keep on checking the on line second hand markets and stuff to see if I can get a cheap Futaba to train with.  I'm seriously considering investing in a cheap ARF trainer too so I don't crash the LT-40 straight away and I can start training earlier???  Still undecided on that too though???