Just getting in to the hobby myself and I have found that this particular question is loaded with different possible answers. The real answer is dependent on how much money you want to spend, how much stuff you're willing to lug around and how much convenience you wish to have. When I started putting together field equipment I went off of a required equipment list that was shown. This was a bare bones, no fancy list with basically your fuel, a hand fuel pump, tubing to deliver the fuel, some low cost hardware to setup a fuel can with your pump and tubing, a 4-way wrench, a chicken stick and a 1.5V battery with a glow starter clip-on (assuming this was the intended setup). This all totalled less than $50. After doing some further research on what's available and coming to the realization that A) I like creature comforts and B) I don't really have a budget I have to adhere to (at least to the point where I don't have to penny pinch) that I could do a little bit better. So, in conclusion I'm still not yet off the ground but have spent an additional $150 on field gear and my current wish list over at Tower Hobbies has another $300 or so worth on it so far. These totals don't account for $200 for the flight sim. I'm also investigating other things so the price I'm sure will be going up.