David, I was in your very situation though later in age with one of my three sons. He was 14 at the time and we too needed something to do as a father and son project. I had always wanted to get into RC, but wasn't able to, or didn't know how to get started until later in life. Now, I only wish I had started earlier.

Now my 14 year old is just about to turn 18, has a car, girlfriend and plays on the H.S tennis team and is looking at college after his senior year this year. We recently sold his last RC airplane, but I'm still going strong and having a ball. I'm confident that one day he will come back to the hobby.

The answers already provided are excellent. Get out to the local flying club and learn what is going on by watching and getting to know the people. No doubt they will help you select the best trainer to match the buddy boxes supported. Likewise flight lessons are free in most clubs, or should be. This is how many of us learned and now we all have a responsibility to pass the heritage on to those who are new jst as others did for us.

To answer a few of your questions - A buddy box is just as you described. It's a trainer box that connects to your transmitter to allow an instructor to assist you in learning while flying. You get real hands on experience while having someone on the controls who can easily take over when you get into trouble. It's a great way to learn.

A flight simulator is a computer program that comes with a 4 channel Tx. just the like one that comes with many trainer aircraft. The best benefit you get from the simulator is stick time regardless of the weather or time of day. If you practice on the flight sim as though it's the real thing you will find that it's very close to flying a real trainer, and not just another video game. Generation-2 is a very fine flight sim made by Great Planes. A flight sim will make the learning process faster and more fun. It will also pay for itself in saved airplanes.

Here is a link to an article I wrote for our club to assist new people in the hobby. It's called Rookie Tips. I wrote it to help new club members get started. The material is designed for our flying club, but the content is easily adaptable for just about any AMA sponsored club. It's a long read designed to get you asking questions when you visit your local club and to answer many questions you will have. It's also available in a PDF file so you can easily print it out for reading when you please. Hope this helps and good luck.

http://www.rocketcityrc.com/rcrc_rookie_tips.html