Hey Neo, welcome to RCU and to RC Flight! Great hobby, and RCU is full of great people.

I read through the club rules, and while you may be right about them wanting you to solo on a glow trainer, it's not necessarily the case. I saw no rule saying that the plane had to be glow powered. I would imagine that they would want you to re-qualify once you bought a glow trainer though; the performance characteristics are much different. (Think of the performance difference between a small Radio Shack electric car and a Traxxus nitro truck. )

Anyway, it would be worth stopping by when there are guys there flying. Tell them what you're doing and ask about joining the club. You're right about the benefits of a club, having people to share what you enjoy is one of the best parts of this hobby.

You might get ribbed about your electrics once people get to know you, but I'm betting it will be in good fun. I fly mostly glow, but have brought park flyers and a Simple 400 electric to the field. The guys make comments about the 400 sounding like a misquito, but I think they're actually impressed by it's performance. And they laugh like heck (as do I) when my GWS Cub sits in one spot for a full 4 minute flight because the throttle's wide open and it can't make any headway against the wind.

Good luck, and most of all, have fun!
Dennis-