Hi Dennis...

The best initial Advice you can be given is to join a club... I did not get into contact with a club until after I had finished my first Airplane, but earlier contact could have saved me a lot of time and worry...

Club members are basically all these RCU members, helpful, friendly, and knowledgeable... They can point you in the right direction first hand and even let you fly club trainers etc before you get your own Airplane...

The best Airplane to buy as stated previously is a .40 High Wing Trainer... (ARF)

This is a Airplane which is forgiving and easy to fly, land etc... Being an ARF (Almost Ready to Fly) it will give you some building experience without keeping you busy for months...

.40 refers to the smallest engine size you would use in that Airplane, but usually a .46 is ideal for a .40 trainer... (As stated)

.40 is the engines capacity... 0.40cc's

There are many sizes but obviously the bigger the number the bigger the engine...

You will also need Servos (Probably 4)... These are the mechanical bits that make the Airplanes control surfaces and throttle work...

And a Radio... Tx (Transmitter) hold in you hand and Rx (Receiver) goes in the Airplane and accepts the signal from the Tx then tells the servos what to do... (4 Channels)

There are many and varied choices for all the equipment but I you should ensure your Airplane has the following controls...

Throttle
Elevator
Rudder
Ailerons


My set-up is as follows...

Carl Goldberg Eagle 2 .40 ARF Trainer
.46 Super Tigre ABC Engine
Futaba SkySport 4 Radio and Servos

[link=http://www.towerhobbies.com]Tower Hobbies[/link] is a great site and if you get one of their catalogues it has a small write up on each part of the gear required...

Hope this helps...

Matt