Originally Posted by jester_s1

The Sensei has a good reputation no doubt, but the best trainer honestly is the one that your instructor is most familiar with and most comfortable with. The budget you're giving us to work with will get you set up in a park flyer type plane, but if you can increase it a bit you can step up into the larger balsa planes that fly so much better. I budget for myself about $600 a year to spend on this hobby. That includes both things I buy to maintain my fleet and new acquisitions around Christmastime and birthdays. Sometimes I don't spend nearly that, and sometimes I spend a little more if I can and really want something. $600 for your first year of flying will get you a good trainer plane and a computerized radio along with all the field gear you need and your club and AMA dues. IMO, the latter are not optional accessories to the hobby, but rather a central expense that gives you a whole lot more than they cost you. I'd forego buying a new airplane for the year before I'd drop out of the club.

The money discussion aside, for now the very best thing you can do is meet an instructor at the club and find out how they go about training new pilots. Ask what equipment they would rather you use and see if you can make the money side of things work. For that matter, since you're a full scale pilot, you might manage to trade a few joyrides for some used RC gear and get started in the hobby very cheaply.