I'm new as well and I built and flew the telemaster without any help. It is a very gentle and forgiving plane that will cruise around at 1/3 throttle with an OS .46 LA, which from what I've read around here is not a very popular engine. It has worked fine for me and I don't even use an electric starter. The plane builds very strong and will tolerate a beginners abuse...you should have seen some of my first landings! I fly off grass and I set it up as a taildragger with 3.5" wheels.

Some building tips: The plans and the actual pre-cut parts don't match up exactly. The plans should be used as a guide only- my wing, for example, built out a full 3 inches longer than the drawing. The instructions might mention this...I'm not sure. I also built mine with dual aileron servos rather than with all that linkage. It was easy- standard futaba servos will fit in with only the face of the servo exposed. The flaps are fun and I'd recommend building them in (another reason to put aileron servos out in the wing)-- they really slow the plane down for nice landings and this probably has a lot to do with my success without an instructor. I installed the flap servo with zip-ties and that has worked well. Soldering the flap linkage and getting 40 degrees of travel is tough without binding the servo, but it can be done. Test the flaps several times with plenty of altitude so that you can observe the effect.

I've had it through some high stress turns at full throttle and the wing is still in one piece. I did two complete raps of fiberglass cloth in the center section and about 8oz of epoxy to stick it all together. The wing is solid and not too heavy. With a weak .46 and flaps, weight on this plane doesn't seem to be a huge issue with all that wing area.

Good luck and I hope this helps!

I'f you'd like more info, I'd be happy to try and post some photos of what I've described.