ORIGINAL: wagen017
TimBle, good to see you will start now. I hope you really enjoy it! You might get hooked!
If you will get to F3A you will fly a lot. Pattern flying is safe. Incidents do happen but if you look at some friends that enjoy helicopters or 3D planes, you will see them consume many planes while you are still flying that one F3A plane and getting better all the time.
Also, don't buy that expensive plane too early. Buy it when you are ready for it. Until then slowly build up your expertise by flying a lot and learning to trim your airplane. It is burning nitro (or electrons nowadays) that will get you there, not an expensive plane.
If for a next plane you would buy a Sebart 110 with a HongKong setup (see threads for info) you would be surprised how far you can get. I am pretty sure if you would give that plane to your current national champion, he would also win the contests.
Volkert
Thanks Volkert, the encouragement is appreciated.
I certainly intend to get as far up the rung as I can go. The Sebart Wind 110E is definately on the shopping list. Doing some basic calcs I could get it flying for a little over a $1000 which is reasonable for a top quality plane as the Wind. They also make the F3Aversion which increases in price by a factor of 3!! I have no shortage of 90 to 1.20 size pattern planes at reasonable prices. Its just whenan F3A sticker is applied to the decal set then the price goes up. Not all the price is materials and labour, I think theres a premium also attached to the "F3A'. No doubt I could get hold of one of Andre Stockwell's Quantum EL's for a very reasonable price over here (Lotsof work though)