All three have ailerons, and all three are nice planes, ( from what I read ). I have a Superstar that came RTF, and I'm very happy with it. If you are buying an RTF from I assume tower hobbies, I don't believe that the Tower Trainer comes with an OS .46fx engine. I believe it comes with the Tower .46 ABC engine. Unless you are doing some sort of substitution.

The avistar RTF I believe will come with an OS .40 LA engine. The same that came with my Superstar RTF. This is my first plane and my first engine and I am very happy with everything and how it performs. Some people say this engine is underpowered, but I have nothing to compare it too, and again I'm happy. The avistar is a trainer, but has a more symmetrical wing for aerobatics, so I don't know how the OS .40 LA will power the plane. I have read posts that this engine is too underpowered for it, and other posts that say this engine will do the job fine. As far as the OS .46fx. I don't recall hearing nothing but good things about that engine, but it is a bit more costly. I want to say around 110.00 or so from tower hobbies. The radios that usually come with the RTF's will be a basic low end 4 channel radio that will get the job done.

As far as the fuel goes, I use the 10% which I'm told is more that enought for my trainer. It is the fuel that tower recommended when I got my plane and all the field equipment. If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't change anything I got. I'm not sure about the FMS simulator, but I have the G2 realflight Lite which costs about 130.00. I'm more than happy with it and it has been a great training tool.

As far as you learning to fly. Getting a bit of instruction is not so involved as you would think. I'm sure there are numerous clubs in the LA area. Just show up with your plane on a nice day, and I can guarantee there will be more than enough people willing to show you a few things, and help you out. Then when you got the basics, you can fly on the dried up lake bed as you mentioned above. Your chances of success and not damaging your plane with improve tremendously. Good Luck. Tim