After a quick web search it looks like the winds in your area are often around 10 mph. I've had a lot of luck with the FireBirdII. It's electric so you can fly it at your nieghbourhood park (if it's large enough) and it's very crash resistant plus easy and quick to repair. it even comes with a spare wing for when you fly it into a tree/telephone pole/powerline/goal post. If you are patient enough (RTFM, watch the video, do the preflight tests) you can still be flying the day you buy it and probably avoid a major crash.
I didn't need an instructor and as long as the wind was under 5 mph I was fine. Although, if you want to do more than a short takeoff and immediate glide landing on your first few flights, then you really need a BIG field (600'x600' minimum, 2xfootball field). A double ball diamond just won't cut it. It's been a month now flying three times a week (with three batteries, so roughly 60-90 min flight time) and I am comfortable in 10 mph winds (at ground level, so probably up to 15 mph at altitude?) and going up to 500' altitude and gliding it home. I recently bought the SpeedWing upgrade and feel that with the battery upgrade I could handle 20 mph winds.
Call it $200 Canadian (tax in) for the plane, an extra battery and one replacement tail and you could be in business, learning the basics and building confidence. Granted it's not even remotely aerobatic without substantial mods, and even then you can't do much. But it beats waiting.