Actually, the fuel may be fine, especially if it was tightly sealed and stored in a temperature controlled environment. Pour some of it into a container and look to see if it's cloudy. If it is, then toss it (in an environmentally safe manner of course).

If those "flaps" are on the horizontal part of the tail, they're called "elevators".

Find someone to check out the plane, do a trim flight, and help you learn.

Good luck, have fun, and welcome back.
Dennis-