I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but neither of those planes is beginner appropriate. Full scale knowledge and flight characteristic don't translate very much to RC. The smart move will be to set those two planes aside and get an RC trainer. The E-Flite Apprentice will do nicely to get your skills up to par so you can fly those park flyer scale models. FWIW, go over those two planes really well before launching them, and then have an experienced RC pilot go over them again. Hobby King and Dynam are at the low end quality wise, and so it wouldn't be terribly surprising to find a glue joint that wasn't stuck or something broken either in the airframe or the electronics.

Other than that, welcome to the hobby. You'll find that RC'ers are very willing to help newcomers as a general rule, and since you've already joined the AMA and are looking into clubs, you'll probably be able to get some free instruction. Many clubs keep trainer planes on hand for new pilots, so ask around before you buy anything else.